Alex Rider & the World Cup
by Jeraina
Summary: Dropped.MI6 gives Alex tickets to the World Cup saying he deserves a vacation. Alex has his doubts, but it's not so easy to turn down such an offer. And then something happens that Alex hadn't planned. Is it Karma or does MI6 have something to do with it
1. The Sign of Gratitude

**Author's note:** This is my first posting in this site. I'm not a native English speaker, so forgive me if there's some mistakes in the text. I did use Microsoft Word and checked the text with it so there shouldn't be anything major. I also have two to three other writing projects on and the third year in high school, so I try to update once a week but can surely say that it's not always possible. Please R&R to let me know what you think. If you think that Alex is too OOC, tell me, I try to correct it then. Originally this story didn't born especially for Alex, but somehow I have yet to be able to come up with a believable teenage agent of my own..

Oh, right, the subject (The World Cup) might be a little late, but that's not too serius, right? :)

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Alex Rider series or anything in this story you can connecti with the books. Those are owned by Anthony Horowitz who I wish would not finish after the eighth book, as he once said he would.

On to the story.

**Chapter 1:** Show of gratitude

Alex Rider cursed himself. He could have easily told that he wasn't coming but there he was now, sitting in the office of the head of the MI6. His eyes didn't show anything at all when he stared ant the man he had learned to hate soon after their first meeting. The man sitting in front of him had nothing peculiar in him, beside the fact that he was totally grey. Grey hair, grey eyes, and grey suit and even strangely grey skin.

Sometimes Alex had wondered how so normally unnoticeable man had managed to rise up to the seat he was now sitting on. Normally leaders had at least some charisma. No, that was wrong, he couldn't say that Alan Blunt hadn't charisma. He had an aura that made people he was talking to think that there was no kidding with the man. Still Alex would have thought that bosses should have something in them that made them likable, in some scale. Blunt had nothing.

Suddenly it came to Alex's mind that Blunt must have been a good agent in his time, since his enemies couldn't describe him as nothing but grey. Now there was nothing in Blunt that showing he'd been an agent himself, the way he acted with agents working under him; not thinking for them at all before sending them out.

Though, _most _of the agents were in their job out of free will.

The door opened and a woman with hair that looked like it was cut under a pot walked in. She was wearing a simple grey suit that fit perfectly beside her boss. She was the head deputy of the MI6, Tulip Jones, and she had, like always, a peppermint caramel in her mouth. Mrs. Jones handed Blunt some papers standing then beside him facing Alex who was pretty soon what was to happen next. Still he asked. "What?"

Mrs. Jones took one of the papers Blunt had laid before him – was there any point to give them to him in the first place? Maybe it had something to do with protocols – and put it down in front of Alex. He kept his eyes in his boss, not paying any attention to the paper. Somehow there was something wrong with Blunt's face, Alex couldn't point out what the strange thing was.

"We think you deserve a vacation," Blunt said after figuring that Alex wasn't going to take any actions towards what had been put in front of him.

"A vacation?" Blunt had gotten him little off guard since those weren't the words Alex had been expecting. He concealed the feeling from his face. You never knew about Blunt, he was a master of manipulation. Alex doubted MI6 would send him laying to a beach in the Bahamas.

"That's right. We think you've done an excellent job in your late missions," Mrs. Jones answered motioning her hand to a paper before him; Alex noted it was an envelope. Still dubious he turned his eyes to Blunt.

"You like football, don't you?" the question seemed to drop down nowhere and this time Alex had hard time keeping the surprise to himself.

"Yeah." Good, a short answer that didn't show too much interest that Blunt could use to get Alex trapped.

"So I expect you like to watch it, too."

"Well, yeah…" Where was this taking him?

"Good." Alex saw Blunt's lips curve a little but they where soon returned to their normal position in a strait line. He stayed quiet, waiting Blunt to go on. Unconsciously his eyes visited the envelope.

Blunt took that movement as a catch and started to pull calmly. "We've gotten you two ticket's to the World Cup final."

The so-called calm pull didn't feel calm at all to Alex. "_Excuse me?_" said match was a match many football fans would kill to get tickets to. Alex hadn't exactly killed anybody but there were disturbingly many deaths he was responsible for, in a way or other. "Wait, what's the catch? What do I have to do to get those tickets?" If it came to killing, he could consider even that. He was a die-hard football fan, after all.

"There's no catch. We give them to you as a show of gratitude for your job," Mrs. Jones told, her tone the same it was when she was explaining Alex his next mission. It was similar to Blunt's talking, only sounded more alive – plus the peppermint caramel.

"So this doesn't tie me to my next mission or something like that?" He wanted to make it sure. Blunt let out a little snort, which was a great contradiction to his emotionless face. "I can assure you that this has nothing to do with those. When it comes to that to that we got our own means." Alex didn't like that when he had used _a mission_, Blunt had used plural, but at least he was telling the truth, they had much to use to blackmail him. Alex didn't like taking anything from MI6 but where else was he going to get those tickets? Especially when MI6 got the hold of his money.

He took the envelope, opening it. It contained many papers and the tickets. Before Alex had time to ask a thing, Mrs. Jones was talking. "Those papers are everything you'll need. There you have tickets to the game, flight tickets and information of your hotel reservations," she was still using the mission-tone. "The plane takes off in four days. You might take with you whoever you please."

Alex left the office feeling strange. He held the envelope tightly in his hand, still not believing what had happened just now. His phone rang. "Hi there, you old chap! I heard you got yourself a vacation!" The voice finally shook Alex back.

"Mr. Smithers? How did you..?"

"That is not important. I remembered how your earlier vacations have ended up like and decided to give you something in case those kind of things happened again." He was right, Alex thought. Just think about his trip to the southern France with Sabina and her family that had led him working as a matador, and eventually led him to fight for the world for a maniac who wanted it blown up, in the president of USA's private jet. Or the time he'd accidentally landed to Australian soil when he came back from space. That hadn't ended up nicely either, though it couldn't exactly been called a vacation. Every time he went to some other country, bad things were bound to happen.

He cut the line heading to Smither's laboratory.


	2. The Tickets and Tom Harris

**Author's note: **Here is the chapter number 2. Finally made it! Thanks for all those reviews, they really work, you know! This chapter is also quite a short one, and mostly a filler, but I needed some more time to create all gadgets I'll show you in next chapter, that's already on it's way.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Alex Rider -series or any of its characters.

**Chapter 2: The Tickets and Tom Harris**

When Alex returned home, Jack hurried to welcome him back. "Please don't tell me they made you accept another crazy job," he could clearly hear her worry an desperation in her voice. Despite his own feelings he faked a reassuring smile. "No, they gave me a vacation saying it was a thanks for all the jobs I've done for them since I've done so well."

"What, a vacation?"

"Yes, two tickets to the world cup. You want to go? The take off is in four days."

"Sorry, I got something planned already. Can you ask someone else?" Jack asked apologetically. Alex was a little disappointed, he had wished to take her with him to pay for all worrying she had went through since MI6 had hired him.

"Tom would probably be thrilled if I asked him," he said still smiling. He didn't need a sight of Jack feeling bad for not going. "I ask him tomorrow in school." After all it would most likely be fun with Tom, taking who he was.

The next morning Alex slept in since his mind was full of MI6 and their planning, so he came late to school. "Sorry I'm late, sir," he apologized without even noticing whom he was apologizing to. He sat down taking the books out in an unconscious movement. His mind was too occupied to concentrate on such an insignificant doings.

"Alex, the notes," Tom Harris whispered, Alex took his notebook starting to write down something he barely recognized as history. He knew he should be paying attention so he wouldn't fall behind any worse. Somehow he'd managed to reach others in studies and losing his concentration now could mean falling right back.

He knew all that but couldn't help himself. The situation the day before was still too clearly in his mind and bothering feeling just wouldn't let him go. Of course Alex was enthusiastic, thanks to the tickets but he couldn't shake off the feeling that there was something odd going on. That short curving of Blunt's lips and the tone Mrs. Jones had used. He had heard her speaking in a less official tone a couple times before. Though, the tone this time might have been because her boss was in the room.

The simplest reason for his uneasiness was that MI6 had always been taking everything without ever giving anything in return. Now suddenly this.

The bell ringed letting students free of their teachers' grips, at least until beginning of the next lesson. Alex and Tom walked out to the schoolyard and finally when there was no one in hearing distance, Tom began asking. "What are you doing here? I wasn't expecting to see you today. Didn't they call you yesterday, isn't that where you went after school?" Tom was the only one in school knowing Alex's secret but didn't give a damn of it, which he was really grateful for. "Too many questions at once. How am I supposed to answer all those?" He smiled at Tom. "Oh, right. Well, at least tell me what did they give you. A stealing some important program back? An assassination? A mission to stop this world from blowing up?" Alex could tell that Tom's mind was full of classical plots from spy stories. He wondered how he should answer Tom. He smirked. "Again, too many at once."

"Come on, Al. Tell me!"

"Everything they 'give me', as you said, should be highly classified. But…" he cut his talk only to tease Tom.

"But? Oh please, just tell me!"

"Tickets," was all Alex said. He blurted it out like it should explain everything. After looked at Tom he couldn't help laughing at his dumbfounded face.

"What did you say?" Tom eventually managed to utter. Alex stopped his laughing to watch in to Tom's eyes to show him he really was telling the truth.

"That's right. They gave me two tickets to the World Cup finale, along with flight tickets and hotel reservation. So, got something important in four days?"

"No, nothing planned, why?"

"Then how about getting to that plane with me?"

"Oh my god! You'll take me to the World Cup? Alex! You're an amazing friend, have I told you that? If I haven't then I'll start telling you it non-stop from now on!" Tom was nearly jumping up and down, somewhat controlling himself when he talked but loosing it right after he finished.

Those actions made Alex almost forget his bothering thoughts. That's nice to know. I think it's best for me to take earplugs in to the plane, then. A flight to the South Africa is going to take a while, you see."


	3. The Gadgets and a Black SUV

**Author's note: **Sorry guys! It took a LOT more time to upload than it should have. I haven't had this bizarre life for a long time. In these days I had my birthday, a broken down computer, fever and school building up but _finally, _finally it's here. With the gadgets! Tell me what you think, and thank's for all those earlier reviews they made me happily happy. :) I'm not going to hold you up any longer than the disclaimer demands to make up my slow pace.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Alex Rider, or any other familiar characters, Anthony Horowitz does, though I own the right to be a really big fan of the series and strange gadgets.

Here you have it:

**Chapter 3. The Gadgets and a Black SUV**

Tom was nothing less than excited throughout next four days. By Friday his eagerness had spread to Alex and all the time they were together, just the two of them, they spent talking about the trip and throwing speculations to air how the match would turn out to be. Alex wasn't a big fan of neither of the teams, but the tickets from MI6 were for Spain's seats, so they both built as much a Spanish fan inside them as they could.

Blunt had even offered him a chance to change sides saying it wouldn't be that hard to trade the tickets to Netherlands' if Alex rather went there to support them. Alex had almost taken the offer just to see if the man could actually do it, but since he didn't wish to have any special show of the head of MI6's power, he had refused it. It would be easier to even try to stand against them if he didn't know what all MI6 could or couldn't do. He had never heard someone talking about getting new tickets to the World Cup in such short notice time, and even the offer gave out more of the power he hoped to see.

"Hey! Alex!" he had dozed off to his thought and ignored Tom's wandering whether or not he had enough money to buy all fan junk they were selling at the stadium. "You were dazing again. Is something wrong? Is it your _part-time job?_" Alex smiled at the name tom used to refer to his secret. "Yeah, a bit, but it's nothing important." He wasn't likely to burst Tom's little bubble with his worrying, at least not when his only proof was an unsure feeling.

"But if it's the junk you're worried, I can lend you some money. I have pretty much all I need already so I won't be buying anything there," he promised. He knew Tom would probably get more than enough money from his mom and dad if he asked them separately, this made Alex feel little better when he could consider this being a apologize in case his bad premonition showed up to be accurate. His words earned him a hard hand on his back.

"Really, Al, you're making it hard for me to ever pay you back." Suddenly Tom's face turned serious "Don't tell me..." Alex started, had Tom read his thoughts that well? "Don't tell me you're -" a glimmer lighted in Tom's eyes. "– a secret fan of Spain? You only just got the tickets and already have everything in your hands. Makes me think where did you got them from." A relief swept through Alex. It was Tom after all; right now his mind was fully concentrated on the match and being a fan in middle of all other fans. Not thinking too much of Alex's quietness because he often had a habit to wander in his own thoughts and Tom had had to more or less get used to it.

"I wouldn't call myself a fan. I got them from a… friend of mine who gave them to me when he heard I'd gotten the tickets."

"Wow, he must be a huge fan. Isn't he going?"

"He has work, I suppose." Alex didn't like lying to his only friend who knew even his biggest secret, but he didn't have many choices and telling straight didn't sound appealing to him.

"Work? Just how... Ah, he's one of _them_, right?" a realization lighted Toms face. Alex had no doubt who "_they" _were.

"Something like that," he only answered. There was no need to tell what Mr Smithers' job in MI6 actually was.

After school they both hurried home to get their luggage. For Alex's surprise there was a black SUV standing parked outside his home. They really put some effort in his short vacation, it was like Blunt actually tried to raise his suspicions. And surely enought, when Alex locked his bike a man wearing black from head to toes stepped out of the car. "Mr. Rider, I'm here to take you to the airport," the man stated the obvious. Alex didn't even bother to answer him."The plane takes off at 8 p.m. but it would be for best if you were ready to leave as soon as possible, there is no such a thing like being too early on an airport,"

"Yeah, just let me take care of couple things first," the tone the answer was uttered had no feelings behind it. He didn't like acting all that nice for a man who had just made him feel little offended. The way the man had used to talk to him had been that of a responsible adult talking to a kid whom he couldn't be sure to have figured these things out himself. Alex had met these kinds of adults several times before but that didn't mean he had to learn to like them or even accept how they acted towards him, if necessary he could always act according those believes.

When he had locked the door behind him, he took his cell phone and pushed numbers to call to Tom. "Hi, pal," he greeted when the call was answered. "I'm going to pick you up from Friend's supermarket in 30 minutes, be there."

"Pick me up? What do you mean, Alex?"

"You'll see, just be there." He could see Tom's face in his mind, bewilderment clearly showing in his face. He laughed out loud. Tom managed to speak out an agreement so Alex cut the line going to his room.

He checked that his suit case had everything he'd need in which after he took a plastic bag lying next to his bed and opened it to look once again that it contained all the things it had before; all his possession as a 'fan'. There was a flag that was tied to a hollow rod. When he screwed the rod open there were a blowpipe and three arrows filled with a strong anaesthetic that put a big man fast asleep.

There was also a scarf made steel reinforced nylon so that it was a lot stronger than normal nylon but still elastic so the scarf could be stretched as far as to ten feet and after that it returned to the standard length. Alex had tested this himself. You couldn't do a bungee jump with it but it could be used in many other situations, not including whatever situation MI6 hoped him to get involved with.

Of course there was also a vuvuzela which had some extra in it. There were coloured beams around it that seemed to be there only for superficial reasons, when they actually were transmitters – well the three yellow ones were – that sent their location to Alex's phone that had been little modified, too. When Alex had wondered why did it have to be a vuvuzela since those functions could have been put in many other devices, Mr. Smithers had answered: "I can't send you to the finals without a vuvuzela, can I? Besides there's an antenna inside it and there aren't that many things you can point upwards so that people won't look you strangely, that is probably something you don't need on your vacation. Eh, old chap?" It had made Alex wonder If Smithers would have remembered to tell him about the antenna if he hadn't asked.

And of course there was a game shirt with David Villa's name and number, though unlike most game shirts this one was bullet proof since he always seemed to attract people to point a gun at him.

He took his bags and went down the stairs heading to the living room where Jack was reading. "I'll be going now." Jack lifter her eyes from a book to Alex's. "Yes, you boys have fun but don't forget to call me when you get to the hotel," she reminded him. Alex gave her a warm smile and this time it wasn't just to calm Jack down, he was really getting excited. She smiled back at him standing up to give Alex a strong hug. She didn't seem to have any worries about this vacation at all, so maybe she either hadn't seen the car or then she just hadn't felt suspicious of it, he couldn't believe the latter was even an option when only ones driving cars like that were working for secret services or some other more or less similar organisation.

She was still smiling when Alex said her goodbye and walked out the house. It had been too long since she had seen Alex this happy and excited for something. Even when the boy – for reasons unknown – tried to hide it, she knew.


	4. The Take Off

**Author's note: **Here it is, I just realized that the world cup was in summer, so they shouldn't have school at that time, but think that as an use of artistic freedom. This was quite a short one, but that's ok once in a while, right? :)

**Disclaimer: **Still not owning anything you recognize, most characters here belong to Anthony Horowitz, though 'The man' is fully my handwork.

**Chapter 4. The Take Off**

Alex returned to the yard and right at the moment he was out the man opened a trunk, seemingly anxious to get moving. Alex flung his bags in, he opened his mouth to say something but was immediately cut off. "Just get in, we need to be going." Not being even listened felt even worse an offence than all the talking before, it made him feel the need to get revenge. He knew he was being childish, but didn't mind as long as it made him feel better.

He shrugged taking his place in the front seat, the man sat behind the wheel starting the car. Both were silent. Only when they had been driving a while already Alex tried to start a conversation. "Why are you picking me up?" he asked looking at the man from a corner of his eye, just to make sure he didn't have to suspect this man being part of Blunt's plan. They had been driving a while in silence so the man had most likely expected this to be how the drive would be until they'd reach the airport. His surprised look visited Alex. "I don't know that myself. I have a higher rank than..." the man faded his voice but Alex knew how the sentence would have ended: 'higher rank than to be driving rich brats to their holidays, or something else in those lines.

At least it seemed like the driver had no idea what Alex's relation to MI6 was, he probably thought some rich business man had hired them to escort his son safely to the plane. Alex had to admit that was quite good reasoning, far more believable than a teenage spy getting a vacation from his boss for god only knows why.

He saw a sing to start paying back for the man. He put up a face of stereotypical teenager. "Oh, there it goes. I was supposed to pick my friend from that supermarket over there," he said as he watched them passing by Friend's supermarket. He felt the man's angry look but acted like he didn't. The man grunted quietly in his throat, he directed the car to a right line so they could go around a block to get back to the crossroad and take the right turn this time. All this time Alex could almost hear the man cursing him in his head, he hid a smirk that was trying to creep on his face.

The car pulled over in the parking lot where Tom was waiting, Alex saw a jaw dropping when he stepped out of it. Tom was about to say something, likely something tacky, but when their driver came to collect his bag he chose better not to. Tom's bag was thrown to the trunk. "You too, get in," Mr. Black commanded. Tom looked Alex in dismay. What the hell, he mouthed to him, Alex answered him with only a wide grin. He sat back into his seat and Tom crawled to the back. The man followed them soon after and so they could continue their way to the Heathrow Airport.

The most of the drive a heavy silence hovered around them, Tom's tries to start several conversations were soon brought down. Mr. Black behind the wheel was boiling inside so he didn't even listen to Tom and Alex was hardly better, his answers were short and told nothing. It was as if he tried to keep as much of himself in dark as possible, probably because of the third person in the car.

When they finally arrived at the airport, Tom sighed in relief. He was fast out of the car and on his way inside holding a bag in his hand. Their tickets had already been checked-in so he headed straight to security search. Alex was right behind him. Thank god they had nothing to put in the cargo; they wanted to get far from the man and start their vacation already.

Alex felt better now that he could act like himself. First they went to check where their gate was which after they searched a coffee shop to kill some time. There was still a long time until the boarding to begin.

They were talking about football – what else? – when an annoyingly familiar suit walked to them. Alex lifted his eyes in disbelief to make sure it belonged to who he thought it did. When his thoughts were confirmed, he let out a long sigh. This couldn't be true.

"Please don't walk so far from me. I need to do my job." their suited driver-babysitter-whatever complained.

"You're kidding," this time Alex didn't have to pretend his tone. It was perfect for a teenage boy that was disappointed for not being trusted to make it on his own. "So what were your orders? I haven't been told a thing."

"Oh don't mind me. I'll be in the plane near you but when we reach Johannesburg I'll be in the next plane back home, what happens to you after that is none of my business. I'll do my best not to disturb you." But Alex did mind, minded indeed. He didn't like the man and he was now much more worried than before, MI6 seemed to be more 'worried' about him than they were when he was sent to his missions. But maybe it was all because they couldn't afford losing an agent as good as Alex, and he wasn't sure if he should be happy on not for it.

"I guess that's fine then, if that's really how it's going to be," he said out loud. There wasn't going to be a way to counter this. The man was going to do his job and if Alex was against it the things would only get worse. He finished his tea and checked the time, still over an hour to the boarding. True, there was no such thing as being on an airport too early, but it was hard to spend time there. Bright idea, Black suit.

"Any ideas?" he asked Tom. As long as the agent didn't come in the way he would do his best to relax. But it was already hard to do it. Here he had a friend that knew his secret and an agent working for the same organisation from whom he tried to keep his secret. Tom might have felt even more confused since he had no idea how great secret he was even inside MI6. His question was meant to make Tom forget the thought if they were bothering him, and when Alex let him have the lead he didn't have to wonder if he was acting like a regular teen or not.

Tom thought for a moment and then he smiled. "There are some shops I'd like to visit, maybe mum and dad will pay me back for my purchases. Alex agreed to that, he didn't plan doing any shopping himself but it was better that sitting doing nothing. They stood up and began their stroll in various shops Tom wanted to check out. He had fun with Tom so he didn't mind that he had nothing to buy. Only shade for them having fun was a certain shadow that followed them all the time, two feet as the farthest. It was bothering but surprisingly soon Alex got used to it and when 30 minutes were full he didn't even hear small nothings behind them when he and Tom were playing a pay game. All he registered of his talk were that the game wasn't even close to be realistic.

In the beginning Alex had cursed the time they had to wait but it went by faster than he'd expected. Besides, it was the first time he had spent this much time on an airport without any waiting in a line. Now when the boarding finally began he felt happy realizing he hadn't spent a moment thinking what could happen in Johannesburg.

After 45 minutes in the plane they took off beginning their vacation. Hours went by but after watching one movie Tom started to fidget next to Alex. The restlessness didin't come as a surprise, he'd known sitting wasn't for Tom, what exceeded his expectations was how soon the anxiety had hit. "What's now, Tom, don't you still have movies to watch?" Tom had stood up.

"I do, but I've seen most of them before. And I've already sat a while so I thought I'd take a little walk."

"Already? You do know there's still about eight hours for the landing to begin, right? You'll only get stiff again."

"I know but I can't change who I am just like that. I'll go take that stroll now."

Alex returned to a movie he'd stopped to talk to Tom. It was an action film from some years ago, it had Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker fooling around, getting in troubles and beating bad guys to floor, with loads of humour. It wasn't all that mesmerizing so he didn't mind interrupting it when Tom returned and started to go through their luggage locker.

"Al, it this all you got?" he asked pulling out a bag Alex had put everything he'd need the following weekend.

"Yeah, and then I got a plastic bag that contains all symbols of my loyalty to the team," he told pointing under the seat before him. He'd felt unsure to leave his gadgets for everyone to see. That information made Tom charge back to his seat to reach for the bag.

"Do you mind if I take a look?"

"I don't, but be careful with them. Remember I'm only borrowing them."

"Of course I am, wouldn't want to cause you troubles," Tom assured him taking the game shirt out, handling it like it was made of porcelain, clearly exaggerating. Alex punched him to a shoulder causing him to grin. "Watch out or it might break!"

Alex had felt little uncertain if he should let Tom check his tools so carelessly but then he'd decided to treat it as a test. If Tom was to notice soothing strange in his junk, there was no way security guys at the stadium wouldn't. Getting through security in the airport had not convinced him, what couldn't be taken to a plane and the stadium had some differences.

"What's with this shirt? Other game shirts I've held were different material, more slippery than this one." feeling Kevlar.

"It's different because it was special made. I think it was to keep it from staining, or something. I really don't plan testing that out."

"I would love to! But I guess I won't…" Another smirk spread on Toms face. Alex gave out a long sigh but saw no reason to hide his smile. This trip was going to be a fun one, maybe he'd even stop worrying again at some point.

A lurking nose came out between them. "What are you talking about?" Tom jumped as high as he could when sitting nearly screaming out. Alex only straightened his face before turning to look into the pest's eyes. So much for not disturbing them. He painted his voice to have grudge in it. "Just something about when we reach Johannesburg so it's 'none of your business'." The man leaned back to his seat snorting.

Tom returned to the bag. The gadgets passed his fingers one by one without any further questions. "So did you find something interesting?"

"I definitely could buy something like that before the finals." This time Alex hid his smile. The question had been the final test and his tools seemed to have passed it. He didn't like lying to Tom but it was a lot better than sharing his worries with Tom and ruin his vacation.


	5. The Charm at the Hotel

**Author's note: **_Finally _I got them to Johannesburg! I'm bit in hurry now so that's it for now.

**Disclaimer: **Still not owning Alex Rider books. Luckily all there is from Horowitz's book here are Alex and Tom, everything else has mysteriously came out of my pen.

**Chapter 5. The Charm at the Hotel**

Since they flew at night, nothing really happened and soon after midnight both boys were sound asleep.

Alex woke up when lights were turned on and the breakfast serving started. There was nothing to complain on his tray, he wasn't that big an eater after waking up so he was happy to have a light salad, a toast with jelly and butter and apple juice. When he was eating came another stewardess to ask if he wanted to have a cup of coffee or tea with his breakfast, Alex took a cup of Earl Grey which he was sipping after hurriedly emptying all containers before him.

He was feeling really excited because he'd realized that it was morning already so the time of landing came closer and closer. As if following his trail of thought a voice came out of speakers: "Dear customers, we arrive in Johannesburg in 45 minutes. Breakfast is served again in 15 minutes, which after the serving ends. The trays will be collected ten minutes before the landing's beginning. Thank you." Having finished his own breakfast Alex shook Tom little to bring his back from his dreams, he knew that if he let Tom sleep through breakfast he would have to listen to complains of his empty stomach until they'd reach their hotel.

Tom blinked couple of times figuring out where he was and who was waking him up. "What's up, Alex? The landing?"

"Not yet. You have fifteen minutes to wake up so you can eat, it's a breakfast," he explained. Tom stretched his arms yawning. "Did you sleep at all? You were still wake when I fell asleep and now you're waking me up an empty tray in front of you."

"Of course I did, I don't want to be tired at the game."

Tom lifted his eyebrows in excitement as if he'd just understood they had a mach to go that evening. "That's true. What time does it begin?"

"The ceremony starts at 6 pm local time, the match after it."

"And how much was the time difference?" he was taking his phone out. Just like Tom not to dig that information up beforehand, and just as much like Alex to do so. "Not much, only one hour. The plane's down at 8 so that leaves us with about nine hours to spend taking that the bus drive to the hotel takes about 30 to 40 minutes."

Tom changed the time in his mobile phone; Alex had done the same last evening. "Who do you think are starters tonight?" Alex asked Tom when he put his mobile back to pocket. He finally started a proper conversation now that Tom seemed to wake more every second. This talk, though, could have taken place even when he was still sleeping since the subject had hanged in air for all four, almost five days. Tom's eyes were sparkling when he answered. ""Well, Villa's a must, he's been on pitch most of the games, but I'm not sure if del Bosque will send Puyol out right at start or if his kept for a harder place."

"I believe Spain will put a lot of effort into starters, if they get goals in the beginning they can concentrate on keeping. The Netherlands's not an easy opponent."

"True enough, but did you consider…" they stayed on the subject until a steward came to ask if Tom would like breakfast. Then they cut their talk so Tom could eat at ease. Alex started a game of backgammon. After one round he turned to check the news. Finals were to be found everywhere but Alex intentionally left the starting lineup to dark so they would have more to speak on the subject. They even had a bet of who had more names right and he wasn't a guy to cheat. Still all the text he read put him more and more into right feeling and when monitors were turned off and landing began he wondered if he had enough patience to wait until 6 o'clock.

The landing went perfectly and Alex joined other passengers to clap his hands for the pilot. They got out as ones of the first since their seats were close to a door. Luckily they had no bags to collect from conveyer so they made their way straight out of the airport and in a bus that would take them to their hotel.

The bus was filled with football fans that had came Johannesburg for a reason and one reason only, the same as the two boys who sat as back as they could. Elsewhere they'd have pointed a bit too clearly out. They did have the same reason to be in the city as other travelers but what made them different to others was the fact that they were not middle aged men dressed ready to cheer, and they hadn't drank alcohol whole flight so they weren't as noisy either. Six more people came in and there were even two women in them who were almost as eye-catching as the boys but they were also so drunk that they didn't care about it.

Alex turned to Tom and sighed when he saw the anxious look in his face. Alex wanted to go to the match, too – that should be clear by now – but these weren't the kind of people he wanted to spent his weekend with.

The guide took a microphone so everyone could hear him. "Gentlemen – and ladies – I do understand that you are set to a celebration but we wish all bottles would stay in bags during the drive. So there won't be any unnecessary situations or disturbance for your traveling companions." Alex rolled his eyes, as if that was ever going to happen.

The bus stopped at a hotel after other and finally there were only three very loud men there besides the two of them, they all were left to the same hotel. That was when the men noticed the two boys, one of them stopped to watch when they stepped out of the bus. "What, you two kids here by yourselves?" Alex didn't wish to socialize with him but Tom didn't seem to mind. "Yeah, we aren't some little kids so it shouldn't be really all that strange," he answered lifting his brows.

Alex rolled his eyes to Tom. You really didn't need to answer him, he spoke through his eyes. Tom only smiled a weak smile apologizing now that he noticed Alex's thoughts. "Yes, you are clearly only kids and this is an expensive hotel. Are you some rich brats?" the man was clearly challenging them. This was second time in a short time Alex been considered as a rich brat, so he didn't even mind it. Tom, however, didn't like the man's tone. "Only as rich as you guys, and as much brats as you're bastard."

"Cheeky one, eh? Maybe I should show you how to speak to your elders." Tom's blood was already flowing fast because of excitement for being in the city getting any more adrenaline in to his blood made him a ticking time bomb. One more malicious word and he would blow up to the man's face. "Come on, Tom. Don't give the guy what he wants or he'll be pestering us to get his ass kicked again and again," Alex tugged Tom's arm and his word made him laugh.

"The smart one, huh?" they heard the man saying and Alex had to work to get Tom inside. He pulled him to the chick-in desk. "Hi," he flashed the woman behind the desk a charming smile to make her forget the ruckus they had been part of outside. It worked, for Alex's luck the woman was a young one – in her thirties – they were most vulnerable pray to the smile. She smiled back at him. "How may I help you, sir?"

"There should be a reservation under name Rider. Two people." The woman checked it on her computer. "Yes, here it is. Mr. Rider, room 1651, here're the key cards."

"Thank you very much," he shot her one more smile just to play it safe. Once again his plan worked out perfectly, he felt her eyes on his back as they walked to an elevator. When the door closed behind them he could hear the man from before talking rudely to the woman, he grinned. Now the woman thought Alex as a charming and polite young man whereas the man who acted rudely towards her had to be the reason for what had happened just now.

Alex sent the elevator to the 16th floor where their room was. It was a nice room. There were two soft beds and a bar that had lemonades in. On beds there were towels that reminded them to check the bathroom, too. It had a Jacuzzi which was a really nice surprise to them, in a separate toilet there was a warmed toilet seat, even though they probably would have no use for it now. And of course there were snacks in the room, in a small corner kitchen.

They laid their bags to the beds and checked the time. Almost 8 am so the city was about to wake up. Alex saw that Tom was still feeling mad. "Now that there's still a lot of time, why don't we go check what's in here and if we happen to find a library of a net café, wo could search where the stadium is so we know where to go in evening." The words worked like magic, Tom's eyes lighted up. He would most likely forget about the man in a minute if he was kept active enough.

Alex grabbed his wallet from the bag heading to the door. Tom followed his lead back to the elevator and down to the hall. Alex walked straight to the empty desk and smiled the woman. "Hi again… Megan", he looked the name up from her nameplate. She smiled widely at him. "How may I help you now Mr. Rider?"

"Please call me Alex. Could you tell me if there's an internet café close to the hotel?"

"Oh yes, Alex, there's one couple blocks from here. Let me draw a map," she drew couple lines behind the hotel's brochure. It was a simple map that had only necessary roads and buildings drawn, but Alex could tell that was all they needed. It showed them clear enough where to turn after crossroads. Alex and Tom thanked her as they left.

"You like that, don't you?" Tom smiled at Alex as the hotel's glass door was shut behind them. Alex only shrugged taking the direction from the map. They went by three crossroads that each had a building to show where to turn if the map itself wasn't that obvious. After the last turn they were almost there, it took few feet before they noticed a sigh with an arrow pointing to a café.

The shop wasn't open yet but it would be in ten minutes so they leaned to a wall to wait. "Any place you want to go after this?" Tom asked. Alex shook his head. "I did go through the usual sightseeing spots but nothing really hit me. Some places were kind of interesting so if you like we can check them out. I didn't bother even counting historically important sights, I was quite sure that's not what we're here for."

"Definitely, I'm NOT here to study."

"And that's why I concentrated on different kind of places we could go. I can show them now," he said when the door was opened to them. They paid themselves fifteen minutes on internet.

Too bad for them Alex hadn't taken to count how big Johannesburg was so everything he had planned was shattered all around the city. Taken how used to they were to local transportation they would most likely not have time to visit them and still make it to the game. There went flying his great idea.

Still they used all their minutes. They found a bus that would drive near hotels to pick up Spain-fans. They also found out that there were mostly business buildings around their hotel, including SASS headquarters. That stood for _South Africa's Secret Service_ and Tom found it really funny to think that as a reason Blunt had sent them to the hotel, for Alex to visit his colleagues.

Alex let out a dry laugh. He didn't think it was funny because he had a bothering feeling he was going to be in connection with them in some way or other. Most likely not as voluntarily Tom made it sound.


	6. The SASS

**Author's note: **The chapter has been written for almost a week now but because of exams I had no time to type it to my computer before now. Here we have it now!

**Disclaimer: **I do not own anything you recognize from Alex Rider books. I'm not Anthony Horowitz, so I'm only borrowing them to write something hopefully interesting. :)

**Chapter 6. ****The SASS**

Sure enough, when Alex and Tom returned to the hotel to ask where a bus taking fans to Soccer City would stop, Alex saw a man wearing too familiar black outfit: a black suit and shades, a definitely global outfit that screamed the man's occupation. Alex could only barely held a sigh inside trying to ensure himself that the man wasn't there because of him but simply because his office wasn't far from there.

All his reasoning was blown away by a gentle breeze that passed them by he saw the man the man talking to his hand when the boys had walked by his hideout. Alex cursed his new bad habit to think every suspicious thing happening around had something to do with him. If he didn't think like that the man would not have bothered him. Now there was no place for suspicion in the situation about that matter. So, after Megan had told them where the bus would leave he told Tom he'd go to a toilet.

"There's a WC in the room too, you know," Tom noted him.

"Yeah, I know, but I thought I'd check if I'd find something for Jack in that gift shop so it would mean only waiting for you."

"I guess so. Well I'll be waiting for you then. Maybe there comes something watchable in South African TV." Alex nodded at him smiling. As Tom walked to the elevator, Alex headed towards a sign that had picture of a man and a woman who looked like they really needed to use a toilet. Alex chuckled; it was kind of eye-catching in a hotel that had mostly busy business men as customers.

Alex opened the door to gentlemen's side of the toilets, he went in calmly but right after the door clicked to sigh it was closed, he ran to all closets to leave their doors little open, except the farthest one from the door. It was a simple trick but made it look like he was in the closet whose door was closed. He set himself by the toilet's door, leaning to the wall so a hand dryer was between him and the door. Not a really a hiding place but it kept an instant attention of an in-comer away from him. Normally when eyes were in hurry they searched things that were on their level so when they'd find the closed closet door, things should work out as Alex had planned.

Soon the man opened the door, he's eyes checked around fast but they didn't look to his back left when they noticed the closed closet. He started to walk straight to it.

"You're not taking your gun out so either your greatly underestimating me or then you really aren't here to kill me," Alex finally spoke after carefully watching the man's actions as the said man spun startled around to look at the teen.¨

"You're Alex Rider, huh?" the man tried to hide his surprise but Alex didn't miss it. "That depends on who's asking," he gave a cocky answer and the man's patience impressed him. Dear Mr. Suit at home was nothing to compared to this guy, though by the way this new suited one acted they talked indicated that he more or less knew who Alex was.

"I'm special agent Deo De Lange of SASS, my director asked me to take you to him."

"But I'm on a vacation right now."

"Yes, Mr. Blunt told us about it when he said you'd be around now, he also said it would be up to you to make the choice since it's your free time."

This was surprising. Blunt hadn't ordered him to this job so it must have been that he was sure Alex would take it anyway when asked. "Can you tell me something about this job, and then I can decide whether help you or not."

"I'm sorry but that is classified information. We can't tell you unless we know you're in."

Figured, but it was worth trying. He went through facts in his mind: 1. Blunt had sent him here, offered tickets even, but it was all on Alex's free will. 2. The SASS had been waiting for him. 3. He was practically told to take someone dear with him when he left. 4. He wouldn't get any information about the case before accepting it.

Then those facts were put together he could see how things had happened. First there had occurred a problem which SASS could not take care of, so they had asked help from MI6 so Blunt had gotten to an action. To make sure Alex would do what was necessary he was made to take Tom with him. Now that he'd arrived in Johannesburg, an SASS agent had come to tell him final part to figure out what's going on. Surely Blunt had known that Alex would put one and one together I n his head. By this, it was most likely that Tom would get in danger if Alex declined so to be honest he had no options, what a surprise.

"I guess I'll go, then." He could at least act as if he made the decision. "But my friend's waiting in our room; I need to tell him something."

"By all means, do so, but we had better be going as soon as possible." Alex lifted a brow but said nothing when he took a phone from his pocket. "Hi, there! I found nothing in the gift shop so next I go check if there's something else in stores around here."

"Oh, ok. I'll take a dip in the Jacuzzi so there's no need to hurry." Alex laughed a little before he cut the conversation. "Shall we go then?"

De Lange headed to the hotel entrance. "We're going to walk?" He knew that the headquarters were supposed to be close, but the man was looking as much an agent as was even possible so he would attract lot of attention if they would walk out on streets. "No, we got a car outside the hotel." Wow, the watch was stricter than Alex had thought. These guys really hoped him to say yes.

Agent De Lange waved a hand to a car which for Alex's surprise was not a SUV or even black, it was a bronze five-seated Toyota. There were two people inside it wearing civil clothes, so why was the bloody watch dog moving on his own two legs wearing a black suit?`

Alex sat to the back where a woman shook his hand. "My name's Samora Anthony, nice to meet you, and the man behind the wheel's Tutu Nebel, the three of us, plus a woman named Laura Mansel, are a team." Alex nodded telling himself to remember the names. They had told them to him, so there was a high possibility they had something to do with his mission.

The drive took whole three minutes with no traffic and the destination being so close. Nebel went to park a car while the three of them walked to the third floor to the director's office. There were people waiting for them, Mr. Blunt and Mrs. Jones of South Africa, Alex thought as he looked at the pair. A significant difference he could point out was that the local Blunt looked a lot more like a living person and the local Jones was a man, though he did have a candy in his mouth to remind Alex of the woman and her habit with peppermint candies.

"So, you're Alex Rider?"

"That's right. Now, do you mind telling me what's this all about? I have a friend waiting and I usually don't take that long when I'm going shopping, so to keep suspicion at minimum I would like you to cut straight to the point. If something bothers me, I'll ask."

"Reasonable enough. To get to the point; we need your help to ensure the safety of people going to Soccer City tonight."

"The world cup." He should have known. The most important football tournament of them all - and its finals – was held in continent of Africa for the first time ever; of course some nutcase had to try to pull some crazy trick holding South Africa's reputation and all those people in the stadium as hostages. "So what's the situation?"

"There's a religious cult that goes by name Messengers of Hunhau. They used to kill one person in a month to keep Hunhau happy and even more so if someone of then happened to lose their life for whatever reason – even for old age – because they kept it as a punishment from Hunhau for not doing their job well. We caught their leader couple years ago which after the activity ceased, now that they received an opportunity like this they demanded us to let their leader go free or else they will cause havoc during the finals and kill many people. For them it really doesn't matter which way they have to take since both of them help keeping Hunhau happy and the havoc would bring them publicity and possibly new believers, too. As long as Hunhau's happy with them, he'll let them live."

"How did they contact you?"

"They sent a young man, little older than you, to tell us the message."

"I assume you have him confined."

"Of course we have. It just seems like he lost his ability to talk after he said what he was told to. He hasn't uttered a word in two weeks."

"How are the security arrangements?"

"We have our agents taking care of security checks but the tickets had been sold out so we could only get few agents in."

"The team that's here now?"

"Yes."

"But I don't understand where I am needed here. You got your agent's checking everyone going inside the stadium, plus you got four capable agents in. There should be no need to own MI6 for borrowing a top agent from them." When he said this, many pairs of eyes turned to him. He hadn't said this to boast, it was a fact so he'd say it if it would mean he wasn't questioned during the mission. He's tone was more than enough to tell it was the truth.

The director spoke again. "We don't know how many they have in stands and when they find us there and their leader still in jail they'll do everything to get at least some of what they want. We need someone who won't get their attention."

"And you got me."

"Any more questions?"

"Yes, why did the group stop killing when their leader was catched?" Director's eyes got bit thinner as he thought.

"That we don't know but I send someone to ask him that."

"Good, while you're at it, why don't you ask him how he likes football and if he's happy now that his followers finally made a move, though it isn't going to work. The best would be if you got the answers taped so I know exactly what he said things."

"Okay, I'll tell them that."

"Now that everything's been settled I would like to return to the hotel." When the director nodded him he made his way towards the door. "By the way, being surprised when seeing me is fine, but let's not forget the manners. You forgot to introduce yourself, Director Mandela Patel."

"How..?"

"The last name reads on the table and the given one lies there under your nose," there was a signed paper before the director but Alex had stood all the time three feet away and spoken all the time looking in his eyes, as long as director Patel was anyone to tell.


	7. Getting Ready for the Finals

**Alex Rider & The World Cup**

**Disclaimer: **Yep, still far from owning Alex Rider books in stead of Anthony Horowitz so there's no place to even dream about it.

**7. Getting Ready for the Finals**

Alex was walking to an elevator to get down to a street and back to the hotel. Agent Anthony ran after him. "That was disturbingly impressive," she commented to him, Alex shrugged a shoulder in a nonchalant way. "I guess."

"No, I'm serious. To be honest I was highly dubious when we got your profile from MI6, I thought Mr. Blunt was pulling our leg for not managing this ourselves. Now I see there really was a good reason to tell us to ask you. Just how did you end up working for them?"

"That is classified information."

"Should have known that much. I drive you back." Alex only nodded in agreement even thought he was actually thankful, after hearing all this talk he wasn't happy if he'd have to come back to headquarters to ask someone tell how to get to the hotel. He had some impression of which way they had come but since there was a big difference in walking and sitting in a car he wasn't hundred percent sure he would have found his way.

Agent Anthony led Alex to a parking lot where she clicked a silver Ford open. This time Alex seated himself to the front. "Can you at least tell me are you really the age you seem, or is there a trick behind it? Or is that information classified, too? It wasn't in the file we were given." she asked him as she started the car.

"That question is hard to answer. What does the 'as old as I seem' mean here?"

"I don't even know what to guess. You're 16 at the most, yet it's mostly because of your aura, if I have to make a guess I'd say 15."

"Well, it's somewhere around those numbers."

"Can't you be any more specific? That could be anything between 13 and 19."

"Sorry, but I don't' know what my boss would like of me telling you information you weren't granted with in a first place. Maybe I should ask to see the file just to know what I'm allowed to say." In reality Alex didn't give a damn how Blunt thought of him but there was always a risk that answering some questions would only rouse a dozen more. And in these circles the word 'boss' was definite so it was seldom rounded. This time, too, it put Anthony quiet about the subject. "Ok. You like football?"

"Yes, why?"

"Um, you do have tickets to the match and those must in most cases be booked a long time before hand. Are you here to watch the match just for it being the finals or do you actually go there cheering either of the teams?"

"Let's just say that I would have been happier if England had made it to the finals but that I do have a variation of belongings of a Spain fan."

"You aren't the talky type I see. See you." she said when she stopped her car in front of the hotel. Alex looked at her before leaving the car. "Better if we don't, we both should try blending in the crowd as invisible as possible."

"Smart mouth!" Anthony yelled after him when he slammed the door closed.

He walked in through the glass doors and made his way to the gift shop. Then after buying a souvenir he made his way to their room. When he passed by the desk he nodded to Megan who was talking with her boss. Albeit Alex usually wanted to know everything that happened around him, he paid no attention to the discussion; his head was way too full for that.

The door beeped itself open and Alex found Tom lying on a bed surfing through channels. "Oh, Al, welcome back! Found anything nice?"

"Not a chance, there were three shops around this hotel but all of them sold the same things. Is it even profitable?"

"Maybe they belong to same chain or something. Go try the Jacuzzi; it relaxes you so you won't think those kinds of thoughts. I would have fallen asleep without the TV despite all sleep I had in plane."

"Seven hours isn't all that much to begin with. It would have been a good thing for you to sleep."

"I couldn't possibly be slacking off when you were working hard outside." Hit the nail on the head.

"I think I really should take a dip."

"Do so. I'll look after your snowfall ball. Why do they sell snowfall balls in South Africa, and in summer?" the rest of Tom's blabbering was cut by the bathroom door. Alex set his towel to a rack and pealed his clothes off him. While Jacuzzi was filled with water. He stepped deep in a warm embrace that blew all bothering thoughts out of his head. The water was massaging him making it easy to forget about the real world. He floated in endless nothingness. Until a knock woke him up.

"Alex, are you still alive? It's past nine; your skin's going to melt off." Alex pulled himself out of the bath letting out a heavy sigh. It was a harsh way to pull him back, but it was also the full truth. He had to return to Tom, and he had some work to do also. These things wouldn't have been all that bad separately but to tangle them together without the other part noticing the other was what would steal his energy to think about.

"So, any plans from now onwards?"

"Since I'm not going to buy any souvenirs to my parents and only friend I would actually buy something is here with me, none. You got any?"

"We've been through that one already with a little success. I asked mostly to check if you found something when watching TV."

"Guess that's so. Then I got an idea: if we got nothing else to do, we can always go run. That's what we football players do when everything else feels meaningless."

So they went to run. It's not what most people think of doing when they go visit a place they have never been before but Alex had to admit it was a good option in the situation. They got to burn the extra energy in a useful way and Alex could actually think about his new mission. They also got to know the surroundings of their hotel little better. The only not so nice part in the idea was that Alex had to take a shower so soon after a long bath which felt little stupid. To compare it to all positive sides he was not one to complain, they had won some more time. And he had even managed to figure a kind of plan to that evening.

The rest of the hours were hard to spend. At twelve they had a lunch and at four they had a dinner, both in hotel's restaurant. During these times they didn't talk much when all round things reminded them of a football and they were both sure that when the subject would come back to them, it would bring more anxiety with it. Suddenly what they had mostly talked about the past few days was not to be brought up so it would take some time before they'd find other topics to talk about.

Alex had mostly formed and sharpened his plan during that time, so it was ready to be put in action on most parts. The unclear areas just happened to be the hardest ones: he had yet to figure out how to do the work without causing Tom to worry and how to search the lunatics and not missing the match while doing it.

Despite all their waiting the evening came too fast for Alex. He had come up with some uses for his gadgets but of course he had no listening devices when his plan actually needed them but he just had to manage without them. The grey side in his gadgets was that most of them were to use when something was already happening. What did he do with a blow pipe when he had no one to use it to? Or how would a bullet proof shirt help him in search? Unless he wanted to act so suspiciously that he'd be the first victim they'd choose, which for some reasons sitting beside him didn't sound too appealing.

"Are you sure the bus leaves as five? Soccer City's pretty close so what's the point?"

"I believe that's because they are expecting it to be many times worse than London subway during rush hours. Getting us there early makes it somewhat possible we might reach our seats by the time the show starts."

"Oh, right," many others would have gotten embarrassed by the simple answer to their question but Tom didn't, he had honestly wondered it and that's why he'd asked. That was what Alex liked about Tom, he was truly himself and so a total opposite to how Alex lived most of his time these days.

It was 4:50 pm so they were sitting in the hotel's hall waiting in their full gear. At least Alex was because Tom hadn't bought anything yet. He said he would get something at the stadium. The noisy group had yet to show up but through the personnel-only-door came Megan who smiled when she noticed Alex. She came to them. "Nice outfit you got on, Alex. Going somewhere special?" she flashed a smile at him, Alex would have normally launched something sarcastic but remembering his role with the woman he let that be. "I think you can judge that yourself. Did your shift just end?"

"Yes, I have somewhere to go, too." Alex noticed a bag in her hand and saw a glimpse of what was inside it. "May I ask where you're heading to? We return home Sunday evening so there's still one day and we have no plans for it," he asked.

"I could suggest you some places close here but where I'm going now is not going to help you with that since you'll go there anyway."

Alex's face was that of confusion. "What do you mean by that? Unless you mean the airport where we'll be going eventually and that really doesn't help us."

"That's not what I meant," she laughed taking a scarf identical to Alex's out of her bag. "I'm going to Soccer City just like you two."

"I didn't even think that, I'm sorry. It has probably something to do with your job, simple stereotypical thinking," Alex nearly blushed in embarrassment. Megan laughed again looking at his face. "Don't mind it. See you in the bus, I need to go collect other fans staying this hotel," she didn't sound that happy with her mission with the three men.

"You nearly got me there," Tom grinned at Alex, he'd looked like he was about to burst out laughing throughout the whole conversation. "How can you even put out all those faces?"

"Practice makes perfect, isn't that what they say?"

"With those skills you could easily just talk yourself through school."

"Maybe some time ago but not anymore. Now thanks to the rumours all Brookland's teachers think of me as some druggie gang member so they doubt whatever I tell them, no matter how impressive acting."

"That surely sucks."

"More than you can even believe."

A bus with two floors drove by the hotel so they stood up and walked out to wait for it to park so they could get in. When the boys stepped in they found the lower floor nearly empty. There were couple passengers here and there but they were all alone so Alex preferred it over the upper floor from where he could hear a roaming laugh for time to time. Alex even dared to hope he could spent this short drive in silence but all too soon his hopes were crushed when the three men and Megan ran to the bus yelling.

By the men's actions they had had some alcoholic drinks in their bar so they were way more drunk they'd been when they'd arrived at the hotel. Alex thanked silently in his head that the drive would take a half an hour at the most, all possible stops counted in. He didn't like how everyone else was getting to the feeling and he had to think how was it possible for him to stop a crazy group trying to please some long forgotten death god.


	8. No Time to Enjoy

Alex Rider & the World Cup

**Author's note: **I'm really sorry for those who still read this, this chapter took ages to get updated but you may all blame Finnish high school and how it forces me to pass totally useless courses that take way too much my time... Anyways, now I have my exam week, so I most likely can upload chapter nine by wednesday to get back in to the rythm and my next period in school will be a lot easier than this so I should have some time to write. And here, we finally get to action!

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Alex Rider books or anything connected to them, all I own are all there strange twists in plot here and there and right to tease Alex in this story by not letting him watch the match which he was really expecting, or will I?

**Chapter 8. No Time to Enjoy**

The men walked to them and Megan showed Alex an apologetic smile when she walked past them to her own seat leaving the boys to handle the situation by themselves. She sat down several rows behind them but didn't take her eyes off them, ready to act if something went wrong. She was far enough so she couldn't hear them and Alex was happy about it, he didn't want to blow his character. It wasn't like he was going to act all polite towards the rude lot.

"Hey, it's the cheeky brat and the smart one!" it was the same man yelling as before. Tom snorted; he didn't feel like talking to the men either. Right now he was too intoxicated for the match waiting for them just around the corner so the man's challenging felt like nothing beside it. One of the others who had mostly stayed silent stepped in. "Just let them be, Maxwell. Why do you have to go picking fights all the time? They've done nothing wrong."

"Please don't make me shut my mouth, Jay. They've been looking down on us the whole time. I want to straighten them up a little."

"Are you sure, old man? Jay here has a point, besides if you try to make us straighter than we already are it'll be even easier to look down on you. Ah, and to make sure there won't be any more misunderstandings: our talk hasn't been plural but singular, 'least most of the time. We have no need to 'look down on them' because they haven't said a word trying to 'straighten us up', if you allow me to put it like you did." All eyes were on Alex, who had suddenly said those words on a polite tone and a straight face. It was clear he was aware of every word he let out. Jay and the other follower grinned when their friend was made wordless. The looks didn't go unnoticed by the challenger - Maxwell - and he wasn't going to lose. "Are you asking for a fight?"

"Not really, _sir._ I wouldn't want to send you to a hospital on such a special day."

"Damn you!" the man charged forward but his friend caught his arm before he was able to do a thing. Alex pulled a curtain of fear to his face but his words were in a complete contradiction with it. "You should be grateful to your friends, if your fist would have been an inch closer to my face all my actions would have been only a self-protection so I wouldn't have to take the responsibility. Especially when we have a good eye witness down there," his pupils shifted slightly to his right making the men follow them. They sow Megan walking down the aisle to them. "Is there some problem," she asked. Alex turned his head sharply to look at her, eyes great wide open, then he turned to the men and though his face clearly showed fear, his eyes had a foxy glimpse in them. The men watched confusedly from one face to other one, finally they decided to shake their heads and take their own seats far away from them.

"Those men weren't causing you any problems, were they?"

"Um, no... They just came to chat with us." Alex offered her a shaky smile when she still looked suspicious. "If you say so, but if they bother you again don't hesitate to come to me, I'll teach them a lesson." Alex's smile softened at these words, feeling better she returned to her seat.

"That was really... I've seen your acting often enough but now you were more a spy I've ever seen you. I could barely recognize you, and that fix up of fear and challenge was simply awesome!" Tom gawked beside him. Alex smiled at him after he'd checked the situation with the men and Megan. All were where they should be. "And cut, it's in a can on one take." Tom tilted his head a little, not understanding the meaning of his words. To make himself clear Alex smiled a bit broader. "Situation stabilised."

This time realisation lighted up Tom's face. "Stabilised my ass, who was it that un-stabilised it in the first place," he laughed as he saw overly-acted look of bewilderment in his friends face. "You're blaming me? It was clearly that man who came to us saying all his offensive comments."

"I know that, and of course all your challenging replies were just to make sure he wouldn't get angrier?"

"Why of course, I said all those things simply to scare him off and keep us safe. I wouldn't really have had a chance if it had soared from there."

"Ok, not taking this any further or I'm doomed to lose. Do you remember just how many stops the bus is supposed to take? I would like to be there already."

"Taken that a drive itself would take only about 25 minutes but the informed arriving time was 5:40, I would say that we'll be stopping many times on the way. At least it's logical to pick up the people from the hotels where our tourist bus let them; there were many football fans in there after all."

"But why can't there be many buses on the job, that way there wouldn't be any interruptions," Tom asked when the bus pulled over to a second hotel. Alex's brows rose. "You don't really want me to answer that, right?"

"Nah, I don't. Buy still..." Alex understood him and even if he hadn't then, he would have soon enough. When they about thirty minutes, seven stops and many whines from Tom later arrived at Soccer City he was first to rush out of the bus to the middle of a stream of people wearing orange and blue, not the most eye-friendly choice of colours there. Tom stomped after him and to him, when he saw what Alex's eyes had locked on his own eyes got brighter than they'd ever been. "Hurry up, Al! I need something to fit in with these people." With those words they surrendered themselves to a flow that headed to the gates and a security check, which was anything but light. Not that Alex had expected any less from SASS. Now, thanks to it, getting in was even slower it would normally have been. "I think it's best if we split, otherwise you won't have time to buy anything," Alex suggested. Tom looked dubiously. "Would that really help? It's not like it would bring down the number of people."

"It won't but I've some confidence in my ability to move in large crowds so I'm not going to slow myself down for you, it's all up to you." They got thought the gate and Alex sprinted as fast as his legs let him smirking as he heard Tom yelling something after him.

There was also a real reason he'd needed to separate from Tom for a while. He searched a map that showed the stadium's layout and memorized it as well as he could before taking its picture by his cell phone. Then he finally made his way to hastily built stalls buying some random stuff which after he was free to go to their seats. He did got to wait a while for Tom to show up, so to use a great opportunity he was offered, Alex showed Tom a smile clearly telling 'told you so'. Tom sighed and thanked him when he threw his purchase to his lap as he sat down.

Tom ended up with two vuvuzelas but otherwise they managed pretty well for him having two of nothing else. Soon after Tom had finished coating himself the lights turned off and the show on the pitch started. After some flashy when the players ran to the grass Alex could see agent De Lange eyeing around in their stand. He stood up. "I think I go to WC so I won't miss something important during the game." He walked towards the agent and when he was close enough he jumped in front of a man selling drinks so that they clashed. The commotion made everyone close turn to them, De Lange included. The man's eyes widened as he recognized Alex, the boy signed through his eyes that he wanted the man go to a hall and wait him there. Alex apologised the seller several times and gave him some money he happened to have in his pocket, then he went after De Lange.

When he passed the man he beckoned to the toilets to make sure no one would listen to them. He took out his vuvuzela untying the beams around it and gave De Lange the three yellow ones. "I miss one but could you give these to your team, they're transmitters and would help me figuring what's happening around me without being on a phone all the time. That way I can also plan my own moves without need to wonder if it'll come into way of your work." De Lange took the beams checking them closely, Alex sighed. "Look, there's nothing going to happen to you even if they're only normal beams so you might as well give them do as I ask." The agent nodded putting the transmitters in his pocket. "Was there anything else?"

"It would be nice to have your phone number in case I need to tell or ask you something. It's useless to look around if I can't tell you when I dig out some suspicious people." A nod of an agreement allowed Alex to take his phone out and put down numbers when De Lange said them. While he was at it he also checked if all transmitters were working: there was one point in middle of the screen and a number three in right top corner telling him he still had all three working. Then he left. There was no reason for formalities since they weren't supposed to know each other.

He walked back to Tom. "I didn't know you could be that clumsy," was the greeting he got when the boy noticed his return, Alex frowned at him a little. "There's no way I could be on alert 24/7, it would be way too tiring," he lied while checking who the players on the ground were. The Netherlands was attacking. "Seems like you won our bet," he sighed. Tom grinned wide looking like Cheshire cat or like his head was cut in two parts."Did you expect anything other?" Alex didn't answer but glued his eyes to the small white spot moving around against green background. This time it was making its way to the Netherlands' goal, Alex joined other fans cheering for Xavi who was making his way up. Alex blew his vuvuzela leaving it to point upwards after that so it looked as natural as possible.

Hiding his cell he pushed the star button three times to check where the dots were in the stadium; he zoomed in to get a picture of the stadium. One light had already separated from others and as Alex was watching another did so too, De Lange kept his journey through stands. Content with what he'd seen he put the phone back to his pocket. He was about to swept in to his thoughts but the audience yelling in disappointment down to a grass woke him, he could not afford missing a second of what he had time to watch. Now he got to see that the ball was taken away from Xavi and returned to the middle of the field. Alex was about to join other fans' yelling when a movement in his right caught his attention. There was one man who was not yelling or looking at the game, he was looking left and right before kneeling down at the end of one row. Soon afterwards the man stood back up making his way away as fast as possible.

Alex noted all features of the man in his mind and when he had enough he pushed the numbers he had saved in the cell's memory just a moment before. He put the phone to his ear. "Hello? I can't hear you, the crowd's yelling too loud! Wait a second, I'll find somewhere quieter to talk, then you can say what you want!" he turned to Tom. Jack, he mouthed as an answer for Tom's wondering face before leaving his seat once again. He walked to where he'd seen the suspicious man kneeling as he waited De Lange to answer. He clearly wasn't going to get to enjoy this match fully. "Agent De Lange, I got you someone to search." He told what the man looked like, De Lange was about to cut the call when Alex got to the place where the man had been. "Oh, wait a little. I got more to tell you. The man was kneeling down and acting suspicious all the same, so I think I got you some extra information."

He dropped his phone to a ground apologising a man sitting on the seat in front of him. When he was lifting his phone he got to check under the seat. His movements stopped as he saw what there was. Slowly he returned the phone to his ear. "Um, De Lange, I really got something for you here. It's a bomb," he said in a quiet voice so that the man next to him wouldn't hear.


	9. The Bomb

**Alex Rider & the World Cup**

**Author's note: **Yes, yes, I did say I'd upload day or two ago but just show me where can I find a writer who can stay strictly in his/her deadline. I had a little trouble with the main subject here since it's impossible to find any information of it what so ever. I think it's not one of my best chapters but strangely I like it :D ... Oh, and next chapter is also already on its way but this time I give you no promises, maybe that way I manage to keep that one week between updates.

**Disclaimer: **I Do not own Alex Rider books but surprisingly in this chapter there's only little to point to them, I'm proud to say. All stange characters and their acting is what comes from my pen, though so I do own them. Good to own something.

Oh, right, I get no money from writing this. Unless some of you would like to give we a little sponsoring so I could buy myself a laptop so uploading would be a lot easier? :)

**Chapter 9: The Bomb**

Alex stared at a little box taped to bottom of the seat in front of him while it only blinked a red light at him. A screen was set on fifteen minutes but the count hadn't begun yet. Carefully he pulled the tape out and put the whole thing under his shirt, not happy doing this but he definitely would not cause a panic and show everyone he was not your everyday teenager.

He made his way through the noisy crowd covering the bomb with his arms careful not to let it get hit by anything. When he was on a safer ground he squatted laying the bomb on his tights. He put his back to his ear. "So what's the situation with the man I told you about?"

"I forwarded his features to the team and they're searching for him. You don't need to worry about it."

"I rather didn't but this bomb on my lap makes it kind of hard," Alex couldn't keep the sarcasm out; it was his way to keep the nervousness from creeping on him. A knife-sharp silence fell on the line. "That's true," the agent tried to keep his voice calm but Alex could hear a hint of nervousness when he continued. "Do nothing; I'll call the bomb squad so we can leave them to handle it."

Alex let his eyes roll because the man wasn't able to see it but a sigh was kept tightly inside. "We can't do that, what if they're keeping an eye on outside? They'll know we've found one or more of their bombs and simply blow them up. And you and your team need to keep those places or we have a chance of losing them, and they'd know your faces so they could just come and kill you afterwards. Now, you can call the bomb squad but give them my cell number so they can call me. I'll bring this sweetie apart." What was with this man? How was he able to be a head of a team if he was making so fast decisions? Or was it all because of Alex's age, even after all the trouble he'd gone through to give a trustworthy impression of himself.

De Lange stayed quiet for a long while. "Ok, I call them. You take care not to cause panic with the thing. Find some quiet place, and some tools." Alex agreed and when the line was cut he hid the bomb to the closest toilet taping it under a sink using the tape already on it, hoping it would hold.

He returned to Tom. "Mind showing me what you have inside your bag?" he asked earning a deep frown. "Sure but what're you doing, did Jack want something special?"

"No, she was only preaching me about not calling her when we reached the hotel," Alex lied feeling a sting of conscience that all thinking had kept him so busy that the call after landing had gotten forgotten. "I just want to check if you have something useful with you. Someone fell down in stairs and I help him building something to support his leg."

Unlike Alex Tom took all kind of things with him, it had been a right choice to ask - a little risky but a good one all together. There was a metallic comb, a plastic container with a sandwich which taken its soft composure and a knife Tom had bought on their run around a block for its nice design despite Alex trying to convince him differently saying it would be taken away on airport, now he was silently thanking Tom for not listening him.

There was also other scrap – including a traveller's sewing set which came as a surprise to Alex – but these were only ones Alex could think some use of. His gadgets were of no help in this task. He thanked Tom rushing back to the toilet to wait for the call.

"Were you the one asking for help with handling some sweetie?"

"Yes I do, actually. I have collected some things so I can use them as tools. I have faith to be able to work some miracles with them. The bomb is quite a small one, its size's about a hand and most of the cover is taken by a digital screen showing it'll take fifteen minutes to blow up after being activated."

"Um, good… Now do you have something to open screws carefully? Okay, tell me when to go on." At first Alex thought he'd use the knife on this task but the word carefully made him change his mind and he grabbed the comb, it was strong enough and wouldn't suddenly slip off the screw and cause harm.

He put the back of the comb on one screw and started to move it in a circle, there were four basic screws one in each corner so working them with a comb took some time. After it was done he was glad to get more done. "What's next? There are several coloured wires here, guess this won't be as easy as choose between red and blue, huh," he joked and managed to make a small nervous laugh come of the woman he was talking with.

"Strangely enough many bomb builders stay loyal to the classic; often it eventually comes to that question."

"Really, then which colour is most often left uncut?"

"We can check that out for you later, now please tell me what other there is inside."

The bomb looked similar to computer's circuit but lot smaller and that's why it looked even more dangerous to stop anything. It made him feel like any move would launch another one, no doubt it was always better to know what you were doing when there were wires and electronics meddled in. There were three metal cubes linked to each other and one cube had a SIM-card on top of it. He told the woman what he saw.

"Then let's start with the SIM, do you have something with a sharp side with you? Well, use that knife to lift the card carefully so it won't send any signals. At the worst the bomb might explode."

"Oh, great." Somehow he managed to lift one side of the card so he could use his finger nails to lift it off. His guide told him that now whoever planted the bomb would not be able to activate it up from distance even if he happened to find out it was taken. Right now their biggest worry was that Alex would blow the bomb while taking it apart.

"There should wires from the box that had the card on it; they should go to different parts of the bomb. You can cut them, they hold no real meaning other than keeping sure the signals move, cutting them shouldn't cause you any danger." Alex took the knife and cut the wires the woman told him to. It felt like committing a suicide since the wires were about the third of all wires. When that was done he sighed in relief. Now his job had been made safer though it was still far from it.

"There should be a round centre that has a ball-like thing in middle of it. It's a stabiliser and you need to be careful when we make it harmless, be sure not to shake it, the ball's better not to move. It's the most important part of the bomb, after it's been taken care of, there's need only for some safe measures." Alex halted at this piece of advice when he'd been about to keep going on with his job.

"There's nothing like that in this, everything's as angular as it can be. And I have no way to see through metal sides if there's a ball inside or not." A panic was starting built up in him. If the woman was giving him inaccurate advice then what were the chances she'd tell him to do something that would lead in no good, for him or anyone else near the toilet. While we're at it I might add that his usual problem, the suspicion, was lifting its head whispering theories into his ear how the woman could be part of the Messengers of Hunhau. Just who could he trust in a foreign country, except Tom from whom he tried to keep all this as a secret?

The woman was still talking but Alex couldn't understand the words she was using, only thing his brains would register was that all those long rows of words were meant to calm him down but had no effect. Finally his own thoughts were what brought him back to his senses: if this woman wanted to kill him, she would have made him make a wrong move from the start and explained her colleagues how you could never guess how a teenager understands what you're telling him, her co-workers would have agreed without a second thought.

He forced his concentration back to the small box lying on an ugly green-yellow plastic floor before him. Somehow the nauseating background made it look even more threatening. He grabbed the knife tighter leading it to a black wire the woman was describing him. "I can still see two boxes that worry me, they are as connected as in beginning. Between them are several wires and my instinct tells me to just cut those wires and get this over with," he said when she'd been quiet for a while.

"Don't. When you know nothing of bombs there's no point trusting whatever senses you think you have. Just do as I say and you'll be fine." Her tone was so annoying that it only made Alex even more eager to do his own decisions and leave her advice side. It was clear she Alex had been through during past year and of course that made him look like some over-curious kid who had gotten himself in trouble worse than he'd expected.

But the fact was Alex had already been a long time away from Tom and he would probably soon start to wonder where Alex had disappeared to. He'd most likely go looking for him if he took too long. "I'm in a bit of hurry here and this bomb does look quite a simple now, don't you have any shortcuts to clear it?" he was getting really annoyed there yet the woman snorted to the phone. "There are no shortcuts in bringing apart a bomb. Tell me is there a wire going around the whole bomb."

"Nope, nothing like that."

"That's strange, I have two basic bomb maps here and it matches neither of them."

"If you ask me, this looks like some hook-up of couple building directions you might find on Internet if you search long enough. That's why I doubt there are any trap wires in a creation of this quality. They wouldn't know which wires to put down without detonating the whole thing while on it. This is maybe the safest bomb to build and bring apart"

"Just shut up will you? I don't want your opinions."

Alex knew he was being childish in a wrong situation but he still put the phone down taking all wires his instinct told him to cut taking them all out at once. He'd learned from movies how one uncut wire could cause the signals messing up and make the bomb blow up. He used all his strength to cut so nothing like that was possible to happen.

The bomb made a small beep and started whirring. It did for while, then there was nothing. "Do a beep and a whirring noise tell you something about a bomb?" he asked unsure. The tenseness was strong enough to move through the phone lines, the storm was coming. "I told you not to do a thing unless I tell you to! Does it tell me something, you ask? Why don't you just check the numbers on a screen and decide that by yourself too when you see the numbers counting down?" she shrieked at him.

Alex was little hesitant when he took the cover and turned it to look at the numbers. His eyes widened when he saw them: 1 and 5 followed by two zeros just like it should be. A conceited smile broke on his face. "They're still the same," he told her, her screaming stopped. "They are?" she asked and after Alex had confirmed this fact she started to stammer. "Th-then it's, it's not working anymore. You, you brought, you actually brought it apart."

"Thanks for you, without your help I could have done something wrong." He was grinning ear to ear when he stuffed the phone back into his pocket and collected everything from the floor. When he left the toilet a first thing he saw was a cleaning sign, De Lange was leaning to a wall behind it. He'd been acting as a customer waiting the cleaning to end so he could get in. That way he'd taken care that no one would go in.

Alex gave the bomb parts to him. "Could you take care of these for me? I need to go back to my seat before my friend realises something's not right in here. Tell me when you find that man. I want to know where we are going with him."

"Actually," De Lange looked little guilty. "We got him already, Nebel and Mansel took him elsewhere to question. We didn't want to disturb your dangerous job so we agreed we shouldn't tell you about it."

Alex put his hand on his face. "Take me there, I just need to go to my friend for a while, then we can go."


	10. The Bomber Man

**Alex Rider & the World Cup**

**Author's note:** Oh. My. Gosh. I actually stayed in one week deadline! Hooray! :D I had really fun writing this, but I'm afraid Alex might be a little out of character in this chapter. Please review and tell me where you find those part and - if you have ideas - how to turn them better. But really, thanks for everyone for reading and extrasuper thanks to all those who have alerted of faved this story. I love you guys!

**Disclaimer: **I still am not Anthony Horowitz, but I'm not sure if anything in this actually resebles you of the books so this might not be necessary in this chaptie but why not, to play sure.

**Chapter 10: The Bomber Man**

Tom's empty stare would have been worth seeing at any time other than this. What Alex had just told him caused no reaction what so ever. They'd stayed quiet for a while and De Lange who was standing behind Alex, was starting to get impatient. He let a breath out when Tom took one in, ready to talk. "Okay, I'll use my video camera so you won't miss the match."

Alex felt his jaw dropping and he couldn't work a word out of his mouth, Tom laughed lightly at the look. "Hey, I know I'm not sharpest knife in a drawer but at least I know you. To be honest I guessed something's wrong from the way you acted on the drive to Heathrow Airport," Tom explained. "Besides, you've been all engrossed with something during our whole vacation and there aren't that many options for that, at least not the kind you wouldn't tell me about. That's the reason I bought myself a video camera on the airport."

Alex was still quiet when Tom brought the camera out of his back bag. He had given the other boy too little credit. "OK then. I'll come back here soon enough," he promised as he and De Lange ran out of the stadium to a car waiting them there. Mansel and Nebel stepped out heading to where the two had just come from. They couldn't leave the stadium to be supervised by Anthony alone. As Alex took his seat next to De Lange he tiredly laid his head against the passenger seat's window, closing his eyes. All these big things were happening in such a short time that it felt like it was draining him. He also felt bad for many things: Tom was alone and in danger in the stadium, he had threatened everyone's lives for one childish spur and he still hadn't called Jack. At that thought he reached for his phone looking up Jack's cell number.

"Alex! Are you all right? Why didn't you call me, it's not because of that Blunt, right? Because if it is I'll go out there and show him a new way to use household supplies!" Even being as tired as Alex was, a warm smile crept in his face. "Jack... Jack! Calm down, I'm alright, I'm calling you now, aren't I? And I'm sorry for not calling you earlier but I couldn't really sleep in the plane so I just fell asleep as soon as I stepped in the hotel room. When I woke up again I was so excited about the match that it just slipped out of my mind. Something that happened on the field a moment ago reminded me about you and that cake from last Christmas so I decided to call you."

"We promised we'd forget about the cake. So have you remembered to eat? And -"

"Jack, please. A long distance call, remember? So could we just finish this soon? You can ask all those question when we come back on Sunday." The noise that was made in the other end of the line told in an international language that Jack wasn't fond with the idea, but she knew better than raising his phone bill higher than it already was. "Fine, just don't forget to look after yourself; you tend to get into troubles."

"I know. Thanks. See you on Sunday," he waited for her goodbyes before closing. De Lange was watching him. "She really cares about you." Alex's face set in a bitter smile. "Yeah," he admitted. "a lot more than what's good for her."

"Does she know your job?"

"As little as possible, and even that's too much." The unhappiness to his situation was written on his tone but he didn't bother hiding it. De Lange looked worried. "Just how did you end up in a job on this area?" he asked taking his eyes off the road to read Alex, which was hard when he could only read as much as Alex let him. A bitter smile got a dark snort to its company. "That's classified." De Lange wasn't happy with the answer. "Just tell me, won't you? It's hard to think there are any legal ways behind that." A lightning flashed behind Alex's brown eyes bringing a bloody cold shade in them. The teen had had enough with his prying. "Here I am doing a work you can't handle by yourselves. I've gotten you one suspect to question, I've gotten you information about how the havoc is going to happen and I've also brought a bomb apart and am the only one of the team who can take care of other bombs also, now might not be the best time to insist for information you're not allowed to get."

The scary part in this talk was not the lightning or the bloody cold eyes, they had glassed over in a second; or that Alex was angry, it was that nothing in the boy showed the feeling the words were implying to. His face was like a mask and his voice calm, he could have been saying anything with a face like that and not giving away a hint when he was lying. De Lange was convinced and turned his eyes back to front.

They drove in silence to a close-by police station because they couldn't give out they were with SASS in case someone from the Messengers of Hunhau was checking on their suspect. Alex followed De Lange to a question room's door. The room was nothing like one sees in police dramas, there was no one-direction window and inside he could see a shelf with some papers on it, beside the basic small table and two chairs. Alex looked at the man through a window in the door, it was the definitely man he'd seen kneeling by the bomb. The square face and curly brown moustache couldn't belong to anyone else. Besides, the shirt with checks and a Yankees fan cap were so stereotypical for an American tourist that they were screaming fake.

"What do we know about him?"

"Not much, we got his family information because he's been arrested before from some smaller crimes so we already got some knowledge of him. Oh, and we got that that tape you requested earlier. Would you like to listen it?"

"Yes, please. And could you show me whatever information you got of him," he thumbed towards the door. De Lange nodded beckoning him to come with him. They went into a room with many desks and computers on them. One of the computers was already open and a familiar face was showing on the screen. Jonathan Brewing, as the name beside the picture told, had a daughter at the age of 17 and a wife. Several small crimes like opposing the law enforcement, street fights and small thieving. Not much to pick up, like De Lange had said.

A tape recorder materialized next to him on the desk. "There you have the questions you asked for, damn creepy guy if you ask me," De Lange cracked a little smile but got no response from Alex who took the recorder and pushed the play button. When the tape was rolling, Alex could not stop a wry smile appearing. He was getting good at profiling, thanks to all crazy people he'd met because of Blunt. Most of the tapes content was what he'd expected. "Mind letting me in the question room? I have couple words for our guy."

"Sure, but he hasn't said a thing that would help us in any way. What do you think you can get out of him?" De Lange looked dubious. Alex gave him the first honest smile since they'd met. "Then maybe it's time to try some new ways to get to him." De Lange lifted his eye brows. "If you think it helps us then feel welcome to do your magic. Do you need a hat, a rabbit or a wand to help you?"

"Nah, I think I manage with this little helper here," he brought the recorder up. "I got a nice little trick my dear uncle had thought me." A smirk rose to the man's face. "Show me what you got, kid."

Brewing turned to look to the door as it opened and he saw a teen walking in. His eyes blew as open as they could. "What did you come here for, boy?" The boy stopped to look at him. "Oh, nothing much, we teens are a curious kind. You should know."

"You know about my family. Just who are you?" the blond boy walked couple steps closer, smiling sweetly, looking like any teen model you could find in a clothing catalogues. "Don't be so uptight, I'm but an average teenager."

"Don't even try to feed me that. No average teenager is allowed to same room with an arrested criminal, god knows what they would learn." The kid cocked his head to a side as he sat down opposite to Jonathan. "Maybe he does, maybe he doesn't but I highly doubt you could teach me anything I didn't already more or less know."

"An expert criminal at that age? I pity you."

"No need, I'm perfectly happy with my life, if you leave couple things out of count. At least I don't go around killing innocent people to please some imaginary creature."

Jonathan smiled. Now he knew what to expect. "And here it comes. I was waiting for when you'd get to this. It was their time; we only do as we're told."

"Really, 'it was their time'? That's the best you came up with? From what did you decide it was their time? From their characters? No, they were different. From their occupation? Nope, that's not it either; there was variation from slum dogs to business owners. Then it was the time they were out? Of course, that's it. Death Gods helpers must move around in dark, otherwise, what's the idea?" The teen leaned forward. "Did you help killing many of them? Of course not, if you were in any important position, you wouldn't have been the one planting the bombs. It is, after all, the job you can get caught the easiest."

This was starting to nerve Jonathan out; the kid was just way too creepy. It must have been only a good logical thinking but no teenager was supposed to go through that kind of train of thought, they just hadn't been through enough in their life to do that.

"But you were part of some deaths, weren't you. That was to keep Hunhau happy. You needed to do your job. Which collections were you taking part in? The business man in forties? The young student girl? The bit over twenty years old check boy of a kiosk? The man well over fifty getting out of a bus?"

The boy couldn't possibly read thoughts now, could he? Had Jonathan somehow made Hunhau angry and this was his punishment? "It must have taken some guts to kill that young girl. She did have similarities to your daughter. The reason she was out that late out on Friday night wasn't because she was partying, she had an essay due Tuesday and no time to work on it during the school hours. That's why she had to stay late that evening. If it really was her time then why couldn't Hunhau order her to be collected after she'd returned that essay, all her hard work went down with nothing just because she left the university around midnight?"

How could the boy speak out small parts of information he shouldn't be able to find from files? The TOD was never that accurate, unless the body was found instantly after murder and her had been found but in early morning.

"And that man over fifties, oh he was something special. You had a personal reason to think Hunhau was thinking you hadn't done enough of his dirty job: your family - your wife, was ill and you didn't want Hunhau to take her away from you."

He couldn't take it anymore; the boy had to be cursed and could read through his heart. Jonathan jumped over the table to get to the teens throat. Hunhau only knew what the boy would find if he didn't stop this.

When he was sitting straddled over the boy fingers curling around the thin throat. A man wearing a black suit and a tie ran in, similar looking man questioned Jonathan before sending the boy in. Jonathan couldn't remember any names but the three officers following him could, they yelled one of them out loud asking for orders.

The agent grabbed Jonathans arm, trying to shake it off the boy whose smaller hands were fighting with Jonathan's fingers, trying to get them from his airways. Then the boy's right hand's fingers found Jonathan's thumb nail and took a good grab of it starting to pull. This caused pain and to keep his nail still on its place, his hold reflexively loosened little. Only little but it was still enough to give the boy a chance to do what he'd planned. A leg flew up behind Jonathan hitting him hard on his back throwing the hands far away from the pale throat with red markings now showing.

The police officers took hold of Jonathan and sat him back to the chair, chaining his hands to it and his ankles together by using handcuffs and the suit wearing man kneeled next to the boy. "Are you alright? We got enough information, you can stop now," he whispered to Alex who slowly shook his head. "This is not all my magic can bring up," he talked loud enough so Brewing could hear him. "I still have many tricks in my pocket."

De Lange realized that the tape recorder hadn't been showing yet. "So you're going to keep going?"`

"Why of course, I'm totally enjoying this," Alex huffed massaging his throat before rising from the floor. He sat back to his chair. "Now look at you, that getting angry did you no good. Maybe we should change the subject. What would you like to tell me about your boss?"

"Nothing at all," Brewing spit the words out like poison. Alex put the sweet smile back on. "Do you mean in the same way you didn't like to tell me a thing about those killings? That didn't work out too well now, did it?"

The man blanched when his mind reminded him what had caused him to be cuffed in the first place. "I don't know much about him. Only that he hears the call of Hunhau and tells us where to head to, he's the only link to our god we have."

"A link, are you sure? I believe his just a conceited power-wanting cheater." This was when Alex pulled the recorder out. "Care to listen what he told us. Must be that he hadn't thought our woman was wearing a mike, he just wanted to make her realize how awesome he is. Quite stupid in my opinion, you should always be ready to be taped when someone comes to ask you questions. Never blabber just because no one in jail understands your wonderful plans."


	11. Many Talents

**Alex Rider & the World Cup**

**Author's note: **This is short. A Real Short. But it was either this one now or a longer one half a week later and I ended up to load this now.. Here you have it.

**Disclaimer: **Still not owning Alex Rider or all those books he's gotten himself into. And my tries have brought me nothing, so they still belong to _the _Anthony Horowitz.

**Chapter 11. Many Talents**

Alex started the tape. "So do you like football?"

"Not much, you really came here because of my little lambs? They can't be that big of a problem." Brewing started; there was no surprise or worry to be detected in the talk of his leader. All the tone of the locked man told was that he liked the attention he was getting.

"Do you know what they threatened to do if we didn't let you go?"

"My best guess would be that they're going to blow the whole stadium up. That's simple enough for them to pull through. You shouldn't expect too much from a crew who that easily swallows a lie about receiving some random god's messages." Jonathan started again, or maybe it was more like a jump this time, to get away so he didn't have to listen to the tape but the cuffs held him put. He glanced at them before turning back to the tape after understanding he wouldn't be getting out before it was over.

Alex was looking at Jonathan and was enjoying what he saw, in some really creepy way he didn't know he had in him. Somehow seeing the man being ripped off his belief was comforting. Maybe he was lining this with his own life which had turned out to be mostly a lie. He liked it how his and Brewing's coping with the change differed.

A woman had to hold a scream inside her; she couldn't afford attracting any attention. She was a priestess only couple steps below the head priest. She had even been in charge of couple hunting trips. And now she was angry. Her bomb planter had gotten caught and by a bug he had hidden to the car he was taken in, she'd later heard that the one catching him had been only a kid, a teenager if the voice and discussion were anything to go with. She wasn't going to visit a jail to tell her master they'd lost to a boy, so she needed to take care that he wouldn't get in their way.

Finally Jonathan broke; he fell to the table sniffing. If Alex didn't do all this to save an enormous amount of people, he would have felt little sorry for him. Alex walked to the door. Someone else should get the confession and information down; he had better things to take care of. When he opened the door he came face to face with a round-eyed De Lange. "Tell me, Alex, do you have a lot of experience of this?"

"Theoretically yes but I've rarely had a chance to actually try it."

"So where did you learn that?"

"My uncle has told me a lot about his peculiar hobbies," the emotionless tone was wearing itself around the speak again but unnaturally De Lange felt like he was getting used to it, even though he shouldn't have been when the one talking hadn't even came to the full age. He worried that this kid was doing his job almost better than Deo himself did. The kid was harsh, harsher than many cops on the station who were staring as they walked by.

The man was plainly an SASS agent and to see a boy walking around with him in a police station was not a usual sight. The two didn't pay any thought for the attention they were getting. When they left the room, the men and women left behind started talking. Different theories of who they were and why they were in there were thrown to air so that other could grade them.

Alex returned to the stadium and found Tom sitting with Samora Anthony. "Hello, agent Anthony, what a surprise to find you here," he said as she let him back to his seat. "Yes," the woman smiled to him. "I thought your friend needed some company since we're keeping you busy."

"How's the surveillance going?" De Lange joined the conversation. Anthony's eyes swept over all stands. "Nebel and Mansel are situated in opposite ends of the stadium waiting for further orders to come. We have not detected more suspicious actins and are worried they know about one of them being caught. We have found five bomb to be brought down." Alex sighed, he glanced at Tom before leaving his seat again. "I'm sorry for all this, Tom."

"Don't mind it. You got your job to take care of and so have I", he waved his hand with a camera and smile brightly to Alex. "Moreover I feel safe when I know you're out there, at least I know there's someone there who knows what he's doings. Nothing bad intended," he added when he saw looks on the two agents' faces. De Lange laughed a little. "Nothing bad taken. We've already seen him in action and understand what you mean." Anthony nodded eagerly beside her boss.

Alex clapped his hands. "We all know how unbelievable amazing I am, so could we please get back to the business. I trust you with great quality of the film because it looks like I'll be enjoying this match far too little," he said to Tom turning then to the agents. "Where are these bomb you mentioned. I'll take care of them."

Anthony's eyes widened when she heard there words. "You'll take care of them?" she turned to her boss. "Is that fine?"

De Langer nodded it full serious mode now. "We really don't have any other choices. He has taken care of one bomb in a way even the professional I had ordered to help him wouldn't have figured. He's the only one of us, who can do something to those."

Anthony took Alex to Nebel, who had all five bombs on him in a backpack. Alex had to admit he had guts: the agents were now suspecting the Messengers had knowledge that one of them had been taken away so they could feel impatient and blow up a bomb at any moment. And the man had all the bombs on him, a face set like an African soldier Alex had seen in some documentaries.

Alex took the backpack heading to somewhere quieter to finish its content.

The first of the five bomb took the most time. He had to think so he didn't cut the wires in wrong order. Anthony squeaked a little behind him when he cut the rest of the wires in the same way he'd before. He smirked at her when he opened the second bomb. Rest of the bomb were finished easily and they were on the safe side.

The woman looked at the teen. There was no doubt it was the boy who had been bothering them for a while: he'd been associating with a group of people who clearly were agents. Now he'd went to a toilet holding a backpack with him, an agent went inside with him but the woman couldn't follow. The agent would keep a tight watch so she wouldn't be able to sneak in. The woman bit her finger nails. She had to do something for this.


	12. The Two Alexs

**Author's Note: **Finally it's here, I've had this and half of the next chapter written for about a month now but apparently matriculation examinations and the first night of our theatre group on about the same day doesn't give one much time to just sit down and type what's already written by hand… :)

**Disclaimer: **Alex Rider belongs to Anthony Horowitz.

**12. Chapter: The Two Alexs**

They were making their way to a stall selling candy and drinks. There were couple tables with chairs before it and Alex wanted to have some time to just sit down. Somehow the game had reached the halftime with Alex hardly sitting on his seat. It was no longer a wonder that Blunt had agreed to send him here with a friend. This work was definitely paying itself back to him.

In one of the tables Alex saw a familiar face. He took a deep breath to gather up his character. "Miss Megan, what a pleasant surprise!" the charming Alex exclaimed startling Tom and agent Mansel whose turn it now was to look after him, the way things were going Jack would have no worries of Alex getting in trouble. He could barely do his work because of the babysitters. Megan took his eyes away from her cell phone shifting them to Alex, the teen was practically jumping towards the table the woman sat at his hands thrown open to finish his happy surprise look. From behind he could feel eyes on him and knew he'd have some explaining to do for Laura Mansel later on. A smile spread on her face as she recognized the boy rushing to her. "Alex, I didn't expect seeing you here. Have you enjoyed the game so far?"

"Oh, yes. There have been some moments that got me all fired up."

"A polite young man like you all fired up? That one's hard to believe," she smirked at him, Alex gave he a mocking professor look. "You are forgetting that I am a Britt after all, it should explain everything when it comes to football."

"Guess I forgot that, I haven't found too much happening in this match even though it is the final."

"You haven't been enjoying yourself?"

"It's not that, but I would already like to see some goals. The goals could decide it all but now we have no idea how this match is going to end. I'd love it if Spain got a goal that could take them for the win. Now we can't tell how this is going to end." Alex pouted a little, deep in his thoughts. "That is true, but doesn't this kind of game have its own special way to keep the audience at the edge of their seats?"

"It surely does. I've found an entirely new way to watch the game today. My eagerness to score comes most likely from my own playing days."

"You played football, what position?"

"Striker."

"Wow, you must have been good."

"I thought so but couldn't get a job out of it." Alex let compassion show on his face. His performance was interrupted by agent Mansel. "Um, Alex? You know her?" Alex sighed. "Yes I do. Don't worry. This is Megan, she works at the hotel Tom and I stay at. Megan, this in Laura Pebrute, she's a friend of my father and promised him she'd look after us when we're here," he lied without a moment's hesitation. Megan reached a hand to greet Mansel. "It's nice to meet you, Laura. Good to know that someone familiar with the city's here with them, you never know what two teenage boys can get themselves into."

"Yes, nice to meet you, too." Mansel didn't look comfortable with the whole situation. She wasn't trained to lie, and as an adding stress, she had no idea what was happening. She was several pages behind Alex on this story. Unsurely she turned to look Alex who felt like laughing; all this time Mansel surely had acted like the field was not the right place for a kid like him and that's why she didn't talk to him unless she had to and only looks she ever gave him were side glances. Now that she didn't know what to do, she turned to that exact boy. He barely managed to hold a cocky smile hidden; the charming Alex didn't get cocky. He kept talking with Megan. "So where are you seated? If you don't mind me asking."

"I was sitting behind Spain's goal so hopefully I got a parade seat for crucial moments on the next half. Like Spain getting couple important goals so the game didn't have to get to PKs."

"But I think it would make things interesting."

"Yeah, you said that already," Megan smiled at him. Alex frowned. This was just the kind of conversation she expected to have with a kid like Alex.

Mendel had gotten enough, she grabbed his arm. "Come on Alex. We need to buy our snacks and then call your father before the halftime ends. I wouldn't like having to run around nom to miss something." Megan's brows grunted at the woman's rude action. "Doesn't she have a cell phone? Why won't she let you use it?" she asked, not taking her eyes off Alex. The boy still kept his smile on its place to blow away the shadow on her face. "That's a good question, Laura. Why can't I use your phone?" A perfectly suitable thing for the charming Alex to ask but the agent didn't miss his rebelling, her eyes squinted barely noticeably but all together she managed to keep her face neutral.

"Because the office gave me a phone card that makes it pay all the phone calls. And I am not going to pay your call to Britannia from my own wallet." her hold got tigher as she started to pull Alex to a direction he hoped the pay phones were, otherwise the agent's choice of action would be way too suspicious. She even forgot to buy them snacks.

"Did you have to do that?" she hissed at him the moment no one could here then. Now it was Tom's turn to look uncomfortable. Alex all but faked innocent. "Do what excactly?"

"Don't try to pull that off with me. I'm your senior here; you need to follow my orders."

"Technically your wrong. We work for different agencies that are specialize in entirely different areas, and even if that did count I don't get paid so that takes all your superiority away." At this Mansel actually looked like someone had splashed cold water to her face and it took some time for her to recover. "Then, if you don't do as I say I can always arrest you," her discomfort turned into wicked smile, Alex had high doubts that was because he was supposed to be scared by the threat. It didn't work. "Oh, that card. That would totally blow your cover and fail the mission."

"That's not true. We - the paid agents - carry our badges around even on our free time, for one agent to be here doesn't necessary mean that there are others close. Who would be so stupid that they'd flash their badge when undercover? The Messengers wouldn't probably suspect a thing."

"Fine, go ahead and arrest me. I'll soon be free again, anyway. SASS already owns a favor to MI6 so keeping their agent behind the bars wouldn't be taken too well, would it? But go ahead, try." at last Mansel was left utterly wordless. She made a good impersonation of a teenage drama queen when she turned on her heels storming awa

Tom squeaked nervously. Alex gave him a reassuring smile as he took his phone out, a move he'd done more than often that day. "Agent DeLange, I think you should send us a new babysitter, agent Mansel wasn't able to work with me. Yes, we won't get into anything until someone gets here. We're currently around west wing of the stadium, we're not little children." When he quit, he glued his eyes on Tom's. "Now we have no watch for some time, what would you like to do?" They shared a smirk.

"How about we get those snacks first and then we figure something?" Tom suggested and Alex had nothing against the idea. They went back where they'd come from and luckily Megan was no longer there, even Alex would have had hard time with figuring what to say.

The woman sneered. Now she finally had a chance to take the situation back to he own hands. She'd managed to get the boys with just themselves, now this would be easy.

**Author's Note II: **...and it's short, but that was the only logical choice because the next chapter brings action and if I put some of it here, it would have been just stupidly cut. So yeah, try to manage with just this. For a little while.


	13. Time for the Two

**Disclaimer:** I do not own the Alex Rider books or anything connected to them, they belong to Anthony Horowitz

**Chapter 13: Time for the Two**

"So, what do you want to do?" Tom asked, throwing a candy he'd just bought in his mouth. Alex hemmed, what was there to do inside a football stadium during the World Cup finals. "Why don't we head back to the stands? The game continues in a minute. But we need to change our tickets with someone, DeLange is surely going to check our places first when he doesn't find us where I said we were." Tom agreed to this so they made their way to the stands, halting before the doorway closest to their places.

They asked a seat change from every person passing them but they had to ask it from many people with no yes for an answer. When the half time ended and people passing them were fewer every second, he started to create a story that finally made two men in their fifties to agree to the shift. He'd shallowed his breath as if he'd just ran fast and asked the men to change the places with them because they tried to avoid his ex-girlfriend who was stalking them and knew their places, if she saw the seats taken she'd expect the boys to have sold the tickets. The men laughed at their situation sympathetically and one of them told Alex he could remember how clingy teenage girls were in their relationships since he had three sons himself. They took the tickets from Alex giving theirs to him wishing him luck with the girl.

When they took their new seats, Alex reinvented his sitting style to normal teenager's, leaving the alertness out and pulling the hood of his jumper up. An occasional guilt stung him for not doing what he was sent there for, but he erased it as he remembered he was never sent there but tricked into the situation. That way there were no obligations on him for anything. He'd already taken care of the bombs so Tom was no longer in danger. There was nothing more he _had _to do so he relaxed and watched as Van Bommel snatched the ball away from Xavi, groaning with everyone else in their stand as he saw this happening.

Just like Alex's luck always, they couldn't be allowed to enjoy their time too long. "Well well, aren't you boys having fun?" Megan was suddenly next to Alex. Quickly Alex pulled his role on him. "Yes, it's football after all."

"I think I need you two to follow me," she said, the smile disappearing from her face. An alarm started to ring in Alex's mind but he didn't let it show. "Can it wait? It's getting more interesting now." Megan shook her head and before Alex could ask any further questions, he heard a safety of a gun going off behind them. There was a man standing behind them with his hand in a cotton bag, the bag was pointing towards Tom. "I think it would be better to listen what a nice lady like her asks you for," the man whispered. Alex frowned at the man, he clearly wasn't to be played with: he had a beard covering most of his face and a long jacket, so there was nothing else in him to use to read him beside his eyes whose coldness and hardness gave no space for doubts. Not that he'd face any with his big bodybuild. Alex took a breath before shrugging. He really didn't have too many options offered on this trip. "Good point, I guess we'll come then."

All the time they walked on empty hallways Alex tried to analyze the situation, sadly enough he didn't come up with much. This all would have been easier if he'd been alone. Now that Tom was there, Alex couldn't be sure how the shock would affect the other teen ability to act. He couldn't let Tom get in any worse trouble than what they already were in. "You're a Messenger, couldn't have guessed that," Alex pointed out, Megan scoffed at him. "We're everywhere, the ones the police catch are just lures."

"So what are you planning to do with us? Why would you go to this much trouble to get your hands on two teenage boys?"

"I was wandering the same thing until just now. You've been in close relationship with a team of SASS and now that I got to see the change in you I have to say I'm surprised. When master ordered us to get you, I couldn't do anything but wonder why, now I can see we might have some use for you. We're taking you. "

"So what do you need Tom for? There's nothing extraordinary in him so there's no gain in taking him." Evidently Tom didn't mind being looked down for in this situation as he was nodding eagerly. There was nothing special in him, at least when compared to Alex.

"Apparently master has great faith in your abilities, he told me it wouldn't do us any good to take you by yourself, it would lead to our immediate losing. So we needed to make sure we have the upper hand."

"So, you take a big man – my guess would be 6'6'' and 186 lbs – with a gun and together you take a not-threat boy just to have a handicap to some teen?" Alex smirked grimly, the one time he wasn't underestimated he wished he was. "And you were lucky, if we hadn't changed our seats, you wouldn't have been able to get him behind us. There you have many gains on your side."

"If you know that, then you also know it's no use going against us. Get in the car," the big man shoved Alex toward backdoors of a white van. Why are all suspicious cars white vans? Was it something similar to all secret service cars being black SUVs?

Alex went in the car as he was told, Tom followed his lead. Megan and the man closed the doors taking their seats in the front. "Shit!" Alex cursed as soon as he heard the engine start. Tom's eyes widened at Alex cursing, he normally kept more or less correct way in his speaking even if he wasn't in any character. Cursing just made you easily look stupid.

"It's not all that bad. We're both unharmed, and now I finally have a chance to see what you're job's like," Tom tried to cheer Alex up, but there was nervousness in the dark's eyes. That made Alex feel bad, he didn't need to do things even harder for Tom by introducing him with an unusual Alex. "You're right. I'm just angry at myself for getting you into this just because I felt like being childish; I should have known getting away from the agents would lead us in something like this."

"There's nothing bad in acting childish once in awhile, I totally understand you, you didn't get to see anything at all of that exciting match. Any real football fan would have lost their patience in similar situation. Moreover, you are a kid Alex and there would have been no way you could have known that the crazy people were after you for whatever reason. You don't have to blame yourself." Now it was Alex's turn to have his eyes wide. "Wow, I didn't know you could say something so sensible," he smirked at his best friend who returned the gesture. "What can I say? Situations change people."

Alex laughed a little but couldn't help the feeling bad for Tom in his mind. His friend was sitting on the opposite side of the van's trunk than him and tried to hide the unsureness, not succeeding. They had no idea where they were going since there were no windows and they'd already been driving for a while, though it was hard to tell how long because it was hard to keep track of time. Alex stood up making his way to Tom, the other boy didn't even seem to notice him before he ruffled his black hair hard. "What, Alex?"

"You looked like you had way too serious thoughts in your head so I decided to do something to pull you out of them."

"Well I was just thinking that I have no idea how to get out of this. Do you?"

"Not yet, but don't worry. I doubt that they're going to kill us, their boss is seemingly interested in me if the ways he'd talked of me to Megan were anything to go by."

"Great, now we have no idea what they're planning for us!"

"I think it's mostly me they have plans for, and I'm ready whatever is coming. Don't worry, I'm trying to figure something out so we can make our escape, for now let's just see what's coming for us." Tom just looked at him, Alex couldn't name the feeling in his eyes. "What?" he asked suspiciously. Tom shook his head smiling weakly when he turned his eyes from Alex, not answering his question. There was some sadness in Tom's face that Alex couldn't place for any reason. The reasons for fear and nervousness were obvious but the sadness didn't fit in. He frowned but didn't ask any more questions, he walked back to his side.

They sat still in silence that Alex didn't know how to handle. Usually when he was in this kinds of situations, he was sitting alone ready to act for every minute but now every plan he came up with could only help himself and he wasn't going to leave Tom behind. Not when their capturers already used him as a hostage to get Alex. They wouldn't hesitate to kill Tom if he was no longer of any use, for that Alex had no questions.

"What should we do to kill some time? The drive won't be over in a long time." Alex pulled his cell phone out.

"They didn't take your cell? Why haven't you called us help already?" Tom jumped to his feet enraged. Alex bit a lip, he'd been so lost in being a good spy that he hadn't thought that Tom might have a difference with his wish to see where they're going before calling any back-ups. "I guess I was so full of adrenaline that I forgot it for a moment, I turned it off when we got rid of the agents," he lied to Tom. He didn't want his best friend to know he'd put him in danger to get some good job done. "There was probably some expectations in my head that they would take it away from me so it wasn't even part of my plans."

"Then why don't we call DeLange now? They could help us still."

"I don't think so. We have no idea where we're heading to. All we know is that we're in a white van and there are lot of white cars in South Africa since they don't heat up as easily as some other colors. We should just wait until we know where they should come. Telling them we're in a moving white van will only make it harder for them. I'll turn it off now to save the battery." Before turning out the phone he checked where the transmitters were not surprising when they were still in the Soccer City. When he lifted his eyes back to Tom he could see that the boy was doubtful; he was still standing but now that Alex had hidden the phone in his shoe he at least looked less ready to jump at him.

Alex smiled confidently at him. "I can take care of us by myself. If I'm able to see the moon that's most likely rising now, then I maybe can tell a direction we're in when we reach the destination. We really got no other choices but to sit and wait. I will keep my phone around."

"I guess I should just listen to you, then. You seem to know what to do." Tom sat down next to Alex who sighed in relief, now they were back in the same team.

He frowned as the car slowed down and soon stopped, they hadn't bee ndriving for long. One of the doors in the front opened and closed, then there was nothing for a while but then the door's sound was there again and the car kept going. They drove for about twenty minutes before stopping again. This time, too, the only sound they could hear was a door opening and closing two times before they continued to drive. The third time they stopped the back doors were opened. Alex jumped up but he could't move a muscle to attack because from the moment the door opened, a gun was pointed at Tom. Alex brought down his stance crossing his arms. "There already? I expected the drive to be much longer."

"Or course we're not there yet. A cult like our's can't have a main hiding place this close a big town. We're taking you somewhere before you get to meet some of our head priests."

"A jail." Alex had no doubt what their 'hiding place' would look like. Two breads and two litres of water were thrown to Alex. "´We stopped to take some food, save it in case you get hungry. There's still couple hours of driving and I don't want to hear any whining about empty stomachs." The doors were closed again and Tom let a breath out when the gun wasn't in his eyes again. "I really don't like this role of a dummy I've gotten," he smiled weakly at Alex who was grateful there was no longer silence. And now that he didn't need to worry of Tom, he had couple hours to come up with a possible plan. His more childish side was waking up a little again: it reminded him that if he got Tom and himself out of this with no help, the SASS agents would no longer have anything to say to him. There was going to be any help from MI6 anyway, so he might aswell expect nothing from SASS either, he wasn't their agent afterall. Of course none of this information would be given to Tom.

Anthony returned to DeLange "Say, are you sure he said they were here? Alex didn't seem like a guy to act this childish. He knows his work," she asked, DeLange nodded sharply. "He did say he they were somewhere in west wing. My insticts tell me that something's wrong. Let's go check the main entrance if someone there has seen them. Mansel and Nebel, you go to north and east wings." Agents ran on their ways. At the gates of the Stadium DeLange and Anthony were told that no one had left, at least by the main entrance. They called their teammates only to hear that the boys were no longer in the stadium. They had lost two teenage boys who'd helped them in their mission and those two boys weren't even South African citizens. DeLange knew this couldn't end up pretty, not when one of the boys worked for MI6 for whom SASS was already in debt.


	14. Tom

**Author's Note: **I was quite inspired to write this, mostly because grater part of it I wrote when I was ill and lying in my bed, it somewhat just wrote itself while I was feeling sorry for myself. Hope you like reading it just as much as I liked writing it.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Alex Rider books or any of its characters, they belong to Anthony Horowitz.

**Chapter 14: Tom**

He was not into this. Tom Harris was a normal football-loving teenage boy, he was not to be locked behind four-inch iron door in some basement; he was freaking out. Megan and the scary big guy had had people waiting outside when they'd finally after hours of driving reached their destination and they'd separated Tom and Alex. Alex had been taken to upstairs while Tom had been shoved down stairs to three iron doors of which one had been opened, Tom thrown in and then closed soon after. Then he'd been left alone.

It was dark and he had no idea what time it was. He couldn't even tell how long he'd been sitting in that windowless room. He didn't know where those freaks in gowns had taken Alex or what they were doing to him at the moment. He looked around once again but there was nothing to see. His eyes had somewhat gotten used to the darkness but there was nothing in the room, not even a bucket to use as a toilet, not that he needed one. He was so scared that he was sure his body had stopped functioning so even though he'd eaten pretty much while watching the game - which now seemed months away, for your information - without visiting toilet, it was not bothering him a bit.

Tom jumped back to his feet like he'd dome every couple minutes, he rumbled around the room measuring its size from wall to wall. This time, too, the number of his steps was different than before. It was like the room was getting smaller each time. But surely this was nothing compared to what Alex was going through at the moment. Their boss had been interested in him and Tom had made capturing Alex much easier, now they could be doing anything to him. Maybe they knew Alex was a spy and were torturing him for information. Maybe they were sick in mind and wanted to have fun by nearly killing Alex and then bring him back to alive just to near-kill him again. Maybe they were actually from MI6 and this was all just some camouflage to that they wanted to send Alex on some mission, maybe they wanted to put him undercover. Maybe Alex was... Ok, his thoughts were getting way too absurd to be real but the reason for that was that there was no hint who these people were and what they wanted from Alex. The purple gowns made Tom doubt if he'd even want to know what was going on.

The walls, they were hard concrete. There were no cracks and no way out. The iron door wouldn't give an inch away. The sealing was noticeable low. And the amount of steps he needed to get across the room was smaller each time. There was no question the room was very slowly but surely getting smaller, like the one he'd seen in some movie - was it an Indiana Jones? - where the room was threatening to crush the people inside. He felt his breath getting shallow. But that didn't make sense, at this rate the killing would take hours, maybe even days, and they got guns. If they wanted him dead, they would've already killed him.

Tom took a phone from his shoe, Alex had given it to him during their drive saying that it was likely that they'd be separated when they reached their destination and it would be in better safe with Tom. Now Tom remembered that Alex had told him to hide it somewhere in case they realized their sloppiness and checked them. The problem was that there were no hiding places in the cell. Tom fidgeted the phone in his hand and then a thought came to him, he could call help for them. He switched the phone on and his great plan was brought to an end before it even got to begin: he didn't have the security code of Alex's phone. He switched it back off returning to his task of finding a place to hide the phone. Because there was nowhere better, Tom walked to the wall farthest from the door and set the phone to left corner of that wall. It was better that nothing. If they'd bring Alex to Tom, he'd probably have some better idea but this was all Tom could come up with. While being captivated, nervous and at the edge of losing it.

Tom huffed. Of course he'd believed everything Alex had told him about his missions but he couldn't even imagine what he'd went through, now he'd gotten to taste it himself and because he was sure Alex had experienced much worse than the situation Tom was now in, he could only admire how his best friend had still managed to stay sane. If you left the continuous alertness out of the count. To make things easier to Alex, Tom tried to come up with an escape plan of his own. In the end even he had known there was nothing for him to do so, as expected, when the gown-wearing freaks pulled Alex into the cell, Tom still had nothing.

When the two men threw Alex onto the cold concrete floor, Tom wanted to rush right at him, but even he wasn't so stupid that he'd move when a third man pointed a gun at him from the door but the moment the door closed, he was by Alex. "Al, hey mate, are you alright?" The spy could barely lift his face off the ground to look at Tom. "This is nothing; they didn't even beat me all that bad. My eyes were covered and they insulted me and my life and talked to me like I was a dog, if I said something they didn't like, they hit me. Nothing much," he smiled confidently to Tom who gritted; this was not a time when Alex was supposed to worry of him.

"Then how come you look like you haven't slept in weeks," Tom's hand moved on Alex's abdomen checking his injuries. He couldn't feel anything serious. He wasn't a doctor, but he got many injuries when he was playing football so he somewhat learned to recognize the worst signs. There were no broken bones and not bad swelling, the worst he could find where bruises he noticed by Alex's little whines as Tom brushed over a sore spot. Alex yawned before answering. "They're plainly trying to keep me as small a thread as possible, it's not dangerous, I just need to sleep. You still got that phone? Good, keep it hidden." His best friend hardly got the words out his mouth before his eyes fluttered closed and he fell limp to the floor. Tom hastily pushed his jacked under Alex's head so he wouldn't have tight neck when he'd wake up, Tom didn't need it himself because he wasn't going to go to sleep that soon. His state was too active for that, though he had nothing to do - all he found himself doing was sitting next to the sleeping boy like a watch dog watching a house.

Alex slept a long time, Tom had to keep himself entertained during this time and he found himself jumping every time Alex shifted, worried that Alex would hurt himself by lying on one of his bruises. When he was jumping god-knows-how-many-th time Alex opened his eyes. "Having fun?" he smirked when he noticed the look in Tom's face. "I was just looking after you!" Tom exclaimed frowning at how easy his best friend's attitude was. Alex shrugged a shoulder wincing when a bruised muscle moved.

"So," Tom started to take both of their thoughts somewhere else. "I tried to do my best to help you out in this, that's why I've been planning our escape all the time you weren't here – or conscious."

"What did you come up with?" Alex sounded genuinely surprised, though who was Tom to tell, he'd seen pretty good performances during the day, or the day before, whichever it was now. He let out a sheepish smile. "Nothing..." Alex broke out to laugh. "Should have guessed as much, I was wondering what you'd come up with because you sounded so serious. Don't mind, even I haven't made any great plans. We need to stay here some time to figure the routines we could take advantage of."

"How do we contact MI6, or do you think those guys from the stadium will inform them of the situation." Alex shrugged again, not wincing this time. If Tom hadn't known better he'd thought there was nothing wrong with him. That was a spy for you. "The guys from SASS have no ways to find us, they do probably contact MI6 but I doubt there's anything for them to do." Tom felt like Alex left something un-told but he didn't want to press his injured friend. Injuries. Right. "Just what did they do to you up there? You came here nearly asleep."

"Pretty much the same as every bad guy does. They called me names and tried to get information out of me, each time I said something they didn't like of, they'd hit me. And we both know I often have hard time to keep my mouth in control so they hit me quite much."

"But still, that doesn't explain why you were barely awake when they got you here."

"What can I say, it'd been long day?" Tom didn't believe Alex's story, there must have been something more going on, but he would get nothing dug out of his friend so he let it be, Alex looked fine enough. The spy must have wanted not to stress Tom out or something.

"Don't worry; you're not in any danger here." Well, there was another thing that was hard for Tom to believe.


	15. Change in Tom

**Author's Note: **More in Tom's POV, but don't worry, we'll be back with Alex in the next chapter. I was not supposed to apologize this time because I had a good reason not to. But it wore out, so here I am again with a late update. You better get used to them. I doubt I can keep up with weekly updates with schoolwork, trying to get a job and all my other writing projects. But I try to keep it at month at maximum. Hopefully that keeps you still interested

**Disclaimer: **Forgot it last time but you guys probably figured so despite that. Yet here it is again: I do not own Alex Rider books or nothing you find familiar to them. Although there's quite little of any of them in this chapter; Tom, who I think is really OOC… But for a good reason. :D

**Chapter 15: **Change in Tom

The next morning the cloaked weirdoes took Alex again. Way sooner that Tom would have liked. They hadn't given them many hours of sleep, he could feel it; the phone was still turned off.

Suddenly the door opened, which hadn't happened unless Alex was being taken or brought back. By how long they'd kept Alex elsewhere the last time Tom doubted they would be already bringing him back, and he was right. Megan closed the door after letting herself in with a tray filled with food. "You look good," she commented after he'd shot a glare at her. "Yeah, I'm just awesome here by myself in a concrete cell where I can't even tell what time it is."

"Calm down, at least you get some food," she kneeled before him laying the trail. Tom kicked the wooden tray causing loud clinging and clanging by doing so. Some feeling flashed through Megan's face when she went to collect the things back together, the momentous feeling was wiped away so fast Tom couldn't even start a trail of thought to figure out what it had been. One thing it told him, however, ant that thing was that Tom's angry fits had some effect. When he couldn't even tell if the flickering feeling he'd seen had been of affection or anger, it was a risky move but he chose to take it rather than sit around numbly waiting for Alex to tell him what to do when.

"You expect me to calm down? After you and your brute gun-wielding friend used me to get Alex without any problems and them locked me up in this cell where I get to wait around worried in what shape they'll bring Alex back next time."

"I agree our means weren't fully agreeable but we didn't wish to hurt anyone. That way we could make it sure."

"'You didn't want to hurt anyone'? You dare to come here and tell me that kind of bullshit. I saw Alex last night - if it even was night - when they brought him back; he was hurt I can tell you as much. So, either you think I got no brains or then you are fully blinded of your companions doings. Do you really think they could have any legal plans if they need to abduct two teenagers to get them to work? Gosh, do you even know what kind of lunatic you're working for? I'm sure he's a real charmer to get you this deeply in entwined so you won't even question his methods. I belie-" by now Tom was yelling, his face red and on his feet. His ranting would have kept on going forever if not for silencing yell of the woman still sitting before him with the tray of her hand:

"Harley Springate, don't you dare go judging my actions like that!"

"Who?" Tom had totally forgotten his anger plan when the seemingly random name cut the air. Megan also noticed her slip and laid the tray back to the floor before standing up. She didn't look Tom in the eyes when she turned walking to the door. "Eat your food, don't waste it," was the final thing Tom heard before the door was locked again. Just what the hell was going on here? Now Tom really hoped Alex was there, his great plan had made him even more lost in his head.

He sat down next to the tray and wasn't happy to notice the food that had been prepared for him had been soup, which was now all over the cell's floor. He brushed a hand over his face sighing. At least he had some bread to fill his stomach, again. He took the piece of bread and realized that he had nothing to get it down with; a mug he suspected had had water in it was now empty, most likely from his fit, too. He'd eaten mainly bread these days; hopefully this wasn't going to form into habit.

Several hours Tom sat alone, his eyes darted to the phone in the farthest corner of the room even though he knew there was no point. The phone was off and it wouldn't tell him the security code if he asked it nicely. Alex had yet to return so Tom had no way to distract his thoughts. He felt the claustrophobe creeping over him silently. He knew it was never a good thing to be left in a cell alone, all he'd ate that day was a piece of bread. And now the four walls felt to be lot closer than the day before. Just to calm himself down Tom jumped up to his feet and started to pace around the room. This time he managed to keep himself from counting the steps. Where the hell was Alex, and what was _he _going through at the moment? There was no doubt it was many times worse than what Tom had to stand. An animalistic roar echoed in the room as Tom tried to figure a way to get the uneasy feeling out.

The door opened again. Tom watcher as Megan walked in holding a tray this time, too. "What do you want? Came to spout some more crazy stuff?"

"I can understand how you're feeling. It won't get any better by causing a spectacle. I got guards waiting outside so if you lose your calm, I'll call them inside to seize you," the woman answered. There was surprising kindness in her voice; Tom couldn't believe what he was hearing. As she laid the tray down, he ran to it to receive his first real meal of the day eagerly. There was a faint smile dancing on Megan's lips. It made Tom feel like his fit earlier hadn't been justified. "You wouldn't happen to know if Alex gets ay food, would you? I'm worried of him since this is the second meal brought to me and I haven't seen him the whole day," he concentrated his whole mind into eating so he would no longer feel the pressure off hard walls.

Megan shook her head. "I'm sorry to say that I have no information of him. All I was told was to make sure you stay healthy enough. We can't have a suffering child in our hands." She took a cup of water handing it to Tom who took it gratefully gulping it all down in one take. This new Megan was all different to what he'd seen before and what he had expected from his captors. There was only affections showing in her face, only negative feeling he could find was a hint of sadness in her eyes.

"Are you alright, Megan? You don't look like someone who's taking care of a convict." Megan's smile widened a little to show couple teeth. "I'm fine, don't worry of me. I just want to make sure you manage through this. I don't think the head priest is going to keep you locked in here for that long. Then I'll make sure you get out safely."

"Why would you do that? We have no connections whatsoever, unless you count the one where I sleep in a hotel you work at – and I doubt that counts as a bond." Megan didn't answer, she all but rose from her seat. "Just eat up, I'll also bring in your next meal when the time comes, so we'll see again then." Tom was so into eating that he didn't even notice the click of the door closing.

The problem came when he was done with the food. The short peace of mind he'd enjoyed paid right back at him. The pressure felt even heavier than before. He felt sweat covering his forehead and could taste blood in his mouth; he hadn't even noticed he was biting his lip before the blood broke out. Somehow he managed to bring himself to the center of the room where he sat, knees pulled to temples and taking deep breaths. This was all made by his head, there was no way a cellar floor room had a killer mechanism in it and even if it had, why would it work in such a slow pace?

Time went by flying in his distressed state and next time his head registered anything was when the door opened. He jumped up to welcome Alex back and was surprised to see it was Megan once again. "Good morning, you don't look like you slept well," she had a small crease on her forehead telling she didn't like what she saw. She was as much a mystery to Tom as she'd been the day before. "Yes, I slept well on this floor hard as rock, I can't tell you how long, though, because I have no clock to check in here."

"Oh, stop with the snarky comments already, you're not Alex."

"No, you know anything more of him now?"

"Sorry. Honestly, did you sleep at all?"

"Yes, I slept well enough, thank you."

"Don't lie to me."

"I'm not!" Megan eyes didn't leave Tom's so he just sighed. He did appreciate the kindness Megan was showing him, and she felt like she was watching right through him. There was still no forgetting the fact he needed to figure out how to get away from the situation. Tom was no Alex but even he could come up with an idea that Megan was sent to him just so he wouldn't feel a need to escape.

"You're alright down here, aren't you?" Megan started again. Tom did his best to call back his usual character. "Yeah, not that bad when you get used to it. After all there's nowhere I should be now and nothing I should do. I actually have time to think now."

"You really think I believe that? Just be honest with me."

"I am alright, what can I do if you don't believe what I'm telling. Alex the one who's good in all the planning, all I can do is wait for him down here." Maybe that would keep their attention away from him and he'd have some opportunity to make a run. Megan shook her head looking ready to give up. "I know you want to run away from here. Of course you want; you could as well be in prison. I have more than enough experience to know."

"Experience? What kind?" He would not give in. Not when he had no idea what they wanted from Alex and he wasn't going to help them. Megan locked her eyes on his and he didn't turn away. Was it a mistake or not wasn't easy to tell, but Megan stood up. "I'm just worried of you. You're in company of someone like Alex, who can never bring you anything good. I would just wish to make your stay in here as painless as possible." Either Megan was a really good actor or then she was honest with her words. She was like a worn digging slowly deeper in him. After saying that she took the old tray and left the cell, Tom forgot his eating. His head was hurting from all this thinking. This wasn't who Tom was and it sure and it sure as hell wasn't easy to keep up this new Tom he was supposed to become. He was the funny guy, the one who always made a situation easier. Now he had no way to use his talent.

Time went by slowly this time, and still not Alex. When he had finished his meal, Tom had found himself pacing around again. He couldn't find peace in his mind so he could sit down. He was holding the cell phone in his hand. A plan of some kind was forming in his mind but he could do nothing with it as long as Alex was kept away and he didn't have the security code.

The door opened so Tom hid the phone to his pocket, they hadn't checked them even once during his stay so it'd be strange if they did now. He took a step toward the door, ready to welcome Alex after all horrible things he'd had to have gone through. But it wasn't Alex; Tom didn't know why that surprised him anymore. For all he knew they could have put him in another cell by now. It was Megan, again with a tray even though Tom still couldn't fell any hunger. It felt like she was there all the time. Tom made his way to the same point of the room he'd been during his last meals and sat down. Every time he saw Megan it made him feel like he should give up, like all his fight was useless because he couldn't even fool one woman.

"Pasta this time," she told him as if he couldn't have seen that himself. He nodded weakly, he hadn't slept at all during his stay and he was feeling powerless in both physical and mental state. All he wanted was to get out of there, but there was no way that was going to happen. "You really should sleep; you'll only wear yourself out this way."

"I have slept, you just have your instinct to trust. It's not like you could even see if I had bags under my eyes since it's so dark."

"Harley, come on. I know these things better than you, you know that. Just follow what I tell you, if you won't speak the truth to me, you'll just kill yourself!"

"I am not Harley, my name's Tom!" Tom shrieked out startling Megan, who jumped back up running all the way to the door, slamming it behind her. Just who was that Harley anyway?

It went on and on. Tom saw her during his every meal and after Tom had yelled out he wasn't that Harley person, Megan's action towards him had changed. She had started to ask about his family and his school and his hobbies. They talked about everything and Tom even began sleeping again after being so exhausted he fell asleep in the middle of their talking. Tom didn't give up his planning, no, he still used every waking minute sharpening it but the fact Alex had yet to return kept his plan in starting line. It had been days already that he hadn't seen Alex.

"Hi, Tom. I need to tell you something," Megan whispered as soon as she had closed the door. Tom perked his head from the wall he'd been leaning thinking. The room no longer felt like it was getting smaller every second, he guessed it was because he was used to being there by now. "I saw Alex today; they took him away by a car." He frowned. So Alex was still alive, which was good. He'd started to form other escape plans when he'd thought it was possible they had killed his best friend. He brushed his hand through his hair. Now he couldn't escape if it meant Alex would get in worse trouble than he already was.

"You wouldn't happen to know where they're holding him?" he asked with a faint smile. The look on Megan's face was the only answer he needed. "It's fine, you're not that high in hierarchy any way."

"I can try to dig something up, but Tom, this isn't you. I don't like the boy you're turning into," she sounded desperate. Tom sighed; this wasn't first time Megan told him that. "Megan, I can't afford being that no-worries-just-get-on-with-life-as-it-comes guy, I need to escape. And I need to figure it by myself in case Alex is so tortured he all but sleeps when they let him be." He could see Megan was hiding something. "What aren't you telling me?"

"Nothing much. It was just… Alex was walking by himself. I mean, there were guys everywhere around him, but he was making his way to the car with no threats."

"They had to have guns hidden. Alex's not so stupid he'd jump on a guy with a gun, especially if all the guys around him also have guns."

"Yes, that has to be it. Or then they'd drugged him," she smiled at him, making Tom feel better, too. "I'm sure Hunhau has no need for him."

"I don't' get it how you can be part of this cult. Hunhau, really? Just who is he anyway?"

"Hunhau is a god of death. We serve him so he'd save us, if we go against his will, he'll kill us."

"How do you know what he wants if he's a god. It's not like he comes down to you, right?"

"No, our head priest gets visions of who has to die and when. He tried to save my little brother when he got a vision."

"You have a deal brother."

"Yeah, the name Harley I used of you; it was my brother's. You reminded me of him and I kind of refused to see you otherwise." Well, that explained a lot. "I'm sorry of your loss. Would you mind telling me how your head priest tried to save him?"

"He shielded him from all dangers in one of his safe houses. Everything he needed was brought to him, all he had to do was stay behind closed doors and windows."

"Pretty much like this cell?"

"No it was an actual apartment."

"Burt he died anyway."

"Yes, he took his own life. Hunhau takes everyone he wants."

"Let me tell you, Megan. It takes very little to make someone living locked up life to kill themselves. Sometimes even loss of freedom is enough. I'd know, been through my mind couple times down here. I wouldn't trust that priest of yours; he might be doing all this just as a show to get his followers to do as he wants."

"We're not his followers but Hunhau's."

"But still you do all he wants. Even kidnap two teenage boys who remind you of your own little brother so much you start to sympathize with."

"Why are you talking like this? You talk just like Harley did before he was taken. Hunhau doesn't like that he's power is questioned. Stop this or he'll kill you too."

"I won't kill myself and as long as you don't poison my food, there's no need to fear my death. It's not coming." He could see tears in Megan's eyes before she left the room. They hadn't had a disagreement in a while.

Yet she returned with his next meal. He stayed quiet as he was sure she'd leave as soon as she'd left his food but she sit down before him. "I think you might be right. I searched on internet and found out Hunhau's a Mayan god but he's nothing like Head Priest has told us."

"I told you."

"But that doesn't mean he's not real."

"Believe what you want," Tom huffed. He could tell her believe had rooted deeply and weeding it now was pointless. She left him alone again.


	16. Truth

**Author's Note: **Ok, I give up apologizing. I'm doing this as fast as possible. :) Here you have the next chapter, since I have little more to say. Oh, yeah, I didn't have a proofreading program as my help this time either, so I hope there aren't many mistakes.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Alex Rider books or any of its characters. And I make no profit of this text.

**Chapter 16: **Trust

Candida opened the door to Alex who took a deep breath before stepping in. At first he couldn't find Tom partly because it was so dark and partly because Tom was in the darkest corner of his cell. "Alex?" Tom yelped hurrying to his feet. Alex could swear he'd lost some of his weight, it stung. "Tom," he replayed smiling a little. "What's this? You look better than I expected," a smirk woke in his best friends face as he said this, Alex felt the muscles in his face bend into a cocky grin in return. "Did you think I couldn't take care of myself?"

"More or less so." Of course Alex could take care of himself. It was made a lot easier for him, though. It wasn't hard to keep yourself in a good shape when you were taken to eat out and given a soft bed. Alex looked around. He hadn't even remembered how small the cell Tom lived in was, and how bad it smelled. He crossed his arms to protect himself from a chill that he felt in his bones. Tom was his best friend, he needed to do something for him.

"I don't know when they're going to come get me again, so lets get on with this. You still have that cell phone, no?" Cell phone, oh the irony. Tom took the phone out of his pocket. "I have figured out basis of an escape plan with Megan, we just need to wait for a late hour when you're here and in your strength. You want to hear it?"

"Wait a second, Tom. I need you to listen to me first. The security code is 43536, there's an ap, which you can use to locate the Agents. At least three of them. They'll make sure you get home safe, if you'll have Megan helping you, I'm sure they'll ensure her safety, too," Alex spoke fast in a low voice, fearing people behind the door would hear him. Even the whispering might be enough to make them wonder what was going on and take Alex away before he could make sure Tom got away. "What are you talking about, where are you in that plan. This is your phone, remember. You don't want to tell me your security code," Tom chuckled, trying to make the atmosphere lighter. "No time to joke, I don't think they'll give me that much time. Just do as I say, I believe that plan you and Megan have put together is fine but leave me out of it."

"You can't really believe I could do that!"

"Tom, you're not thinking clearly here. We both have higher chances to get out safely if we go by ourselves. They'll think we no longer play in the same team and won't go chaising after you. I have gotten away from tigher places, you know it. I need you to trust me and I need to be able to trust you won't try to help me out of here."

"What if such a moment comes around anyway?"

"There will not come such a moment, not if I have anything to say."

"What? You sound like you want to stay here alone." Damn, this wasn't going down right. "Don't be ridicilous, look around yourself. Do you really think I would like it in here?" No, definitely not, not in this cell.

"Ok, guess so," Tom laughed. "I'm just quite stressed in here."

"Yeah, you don't belong in a place like this." There was a knock behind Alex. The iron door opened, Candida's head popped in. "Let's get movin already." Alex nodded glancing shortly to Tom's eyes where he was sure he saw suspicion. Tom was already against him, just as expected. He knew he was running away but he still did turn his head away right away setting his aiming point to Candida outside the cell.

"You know he's not going to like any or this, don't you? I don't think he's that stupid," Candida remarked. She didn't get it. Alex didn't want to speak to her, and she couldn't see it, just like she couldn't see many other things. Of course Tom didn't like this, that's why he'd know it was the right decision. Tom needed to be safe, there was no longer any use for him here. Alex couldn't make him an enemy. "I'm not good enough company for conversation to you; our special guest?" she snorted, but Alex didn't let it affect him. Heck, even if it had things were always taken care for him; just like now: "Lay off Candida, Alex's one of us. You're not allowed to speak to him like he's just some random visitor. He's higher in here than you are. If he doesn't feel like talking to you, he won't," blue voice of a woman danced to them through air in the corridor they were, coming from the door. Alex's eyes were eager to set on the black woman with noble features. She was a woman Alex had become quite familiar with during the days. A smile woke on his face. "Shameka," he sighed happily, taking few steps to get over the distance between them and settling next to her, eyes on Candida. He'd never like'd her in the first place, Candida looked like she'd gotten used to being a bitch and get everything she wanted. Now she'd wanted to get higher in the organisation, and for that reason she'd gotten close to Alex. "She has been doing nothing but searching for an oppotunity to stab my back. I don't feel like we can trust her."

"That's not good at all. Ýou shouldn't have to feel so alert in home," her voice was soothing, she was his pillar of support in this world. She took a gun that was always hidden under her cloak, directing it to Candida's face. Suddenly she looked the opposite of the ambitious bitch, she looked like a child that had her candy taken away - although much more intense desperation. Her eyes found Alex, again, and he still didn't like it. "It would go against everything you've given me," he agreed. It was all Shameka needed to pull the trigger. "You must never doubt I told you the truth. You are worth more than most people in here, you mustn't forget that."

"Thank you," Alex smiled at her, she set a protective arm around his shoulder. It was the shield that was always there for him. "I believe the talk with your friend wasn't an enjoyable experience?"

"Not. At. All. I think he felt like I and he are not on the same team anymore."

"Well, I'm sorry to say that I think so, too. He has been on his way to run all the time even when he thought you were hurt. I think he did that decision himself a long time ago. But you don't have to feel sad, you have me - you have us, and and the rest of the Messengers."

"I doubt many of them think the same way; I doubt I can never come to believe in Him," Alex had seen enough implies of this fact that it was starting to feel hard to believe all Shameka's words, he didn't like it. She escorted him all the way to his room in the main building's second floor. "We're not like all those people you've had in your life before. We know you have no one else to trust so I make sure they realize that. Come right to me if someone tells you something like that again. I'll make them understand the situation." Alex opened the door nodding before he entered the room. She wished him a good night. The door wasn't locked, hadn't been in a very long time. Alex had been surprised of the way he could fine the people he could trust in. He hadn't awaken late in night for nightmares and he didn't feel tense in the way he had back in home. This was the calming feeling one should have in home: they knew who he was and accepted it as a fact without being scared of him or trying to use him. It _was _home.

In the morning he woke up to few knocks on the door. "It's time for a breakfast, Lady Shameka's waiting for you in her room," it was a voice he heard every morning but he'd never actually seen his face. After getting this comfortable bed to sleep in, Alex was never in hurry to leave it. He knew that Shameka didn't like waiting, though, so he dragged his lazy ass up to dress himself. When he got to the door, there was no one there anymore this morning either. Well, it wasn't big deal, most people here had hard time accpeting Alex in. And he did undestand them, he was an outsider who forced his way in their tight organization when he had nothing in common with them. He walked couple doors down to the final door in the hallway. He knocked only briefly before putting his hand on the handle. "It's Alex." With that he opened the door to come face to face fith a grave face, it was different to normal. "Is something wrong?"

"I'm sorry, but your friend ran away from here last night with one of our own. We have people following them, but I think he really betrayed you." That wasn't a bad news, it was a good one. He'd told Tom to do so. But Shameka didn't need to know that specific piece of information. "Is that so," a good answer with no hint of any emotion. A small smile was flashed to his direction. "I guess you figured something like this would happen, huh?"

"Let me just say that no one likes to spend that much time in a concrete cell."

"Yeah, guess you're right. So why don't we throw this gloom subject to aside and enjoy our food." she revealed two plates with eggs, sausades and beacon on them as well as some fruit and juice. Alex sat on a chair opposite to Shameka taking the plate closer to him. "You know, Alex. I think I should introduce you to Head Priest. He's the one deciding if people are allowed to stay in here."

"You think he'll tell me to leave?" he was little frightened. He'd felt a woman he could trust, the first adult he felt self and sure with, and he'd probably have to leave her. Shameka put a hand to his fork holding one. "I will make sure he won't, I'll make him see something good in you being with us so he has no reason to throw you out." Alex felt muscles in his face forming a smile and once again it was thanks to Shameka. They ate in silence after what Shameka told him to go find something to do.

Alex found himself wandering corridors aimlessly, just like he did most of his time. That or sitting in his room reading. He was grateful for being able to stay there, but he had little to do without taking part in several seremonies the messengers held each day. He had tried to spend some time in a library in the third story but he couldn't conscentrate in anything when he felt all eyes on him most of the time. And being in one room all the time usually got to a person sooner rather than later. So, again he found himself on his pointless stroll. He didn't dare to leave the houses because he wasn't familiar with their surroundings and didn't know what to expect; he dind't want Shameka to worry about him either.

"You're Alex, aren't you?" A meaningless question; everyone under this roof knew who he was, so there was really no need to answer but Alex didn't want to be the reason why it was so hard for him to fit in. "Yes I am, nice to finally see your face." Even someone without his experience with situation where many small things were the most important things to solve a situation would have recognized the voice from behind his door every morning. Still, his knowledge came as a surprise to the boy who was even younger than Alex, it was surprise that someone as young as him could be part of a religious cult.

"Lady Shameka sent me to make sure you got your way around."

"I do preciate the offer but I have gotten pretty good picture of the layout by now. I should manage."

"I'm informed of it but part of my job is to make sure you fit in with the people here," there was eagerness in the boys voice that Alex had no heart to bring down. "Alright, then. Let's start with your name. I'm Alex, who are you."

"I'm Leslie, really nice to make your acquaintance." The kid surely was polite, the politest ten to twelve-year-old Alex had ever met. "Well, Lesley, I was on my way to the library. Would you be kind and start in there." Leslie grinned reliefed since he most likely had had no idea where to begin.

Leslie walked him through the main house showing Alex all the rooms, even when Alex had just told him he'd went through it all. The good thing in Leslie's guiding was that he introduced Alex to some members; that wasn't much, though since most of them were still doing their morning prayers. This made him look more like a human to others, not just like some statue or a ghost wandering around. Besides to be honest Alex was happy to have some company other than Shameka. It was a nice way to spend 30 minutes after what a Messenger came to him. "Lady Shameka asks you to her room, she has a connection to Head Priest and they want to talk with you."

Alex returned to Shameka's knocking the door properly this time. He didn't want to lessen his chances. He waited for a permission to enter. "Ah, Alex, we were waiting for you," Shameka smiled at him encouraginly.

"Have you already had the conversation about me?" he asked watching between Shameka and a phone on her table that was on speaker, Alex could see it from a light that was shining red.

"We certainly have talked about you, but there are some things bothering me," a man's voice came from the speaker. Alex recognized it to be the voice he'd heard in a tape recorder when he'd been questioning Jonathan Brewing. "You're the boss, tell me what's bothering you and I'll do something about it."

"First of all, your friend left us right after he'd had a talk with you. Second of all, you don't believe in Hunhau and the third point is: I know your occupation which makes it really hard to trust you."

"To the first: I know how that would seem suspicious but if he was actually my friend wouldn't we have worked together to make sure both of us were safe. To the second: I was told that the believe isn't that important if I act as a part of the group and finally to the third: I have never had any will to keep my job, it was just shoved for me and then they forced me to keep doing it. I have no obligation for it - for them."

"I'd be glad to give you a safe place to leave, but nothing safe is given without any work. But, before I let you work with us, I need to know I can really trust you."

"Just tell me what to do to show my loyality."

"I know you have many skills, I would like you to break free from this prison."

"I'm sorry to doubt you but are you sure it's safe to be talking like this in a public phone?"

"I have fellow believers all over the place. Even in here, he takes care this won't be rocerded."

"I see, but you do understand that I need to know your name to help you out, sir?"

"I almost expected the SASS to give it to you. I feel bad that they used you even when they though they couldn't trust you."

"It looks like the world has a very little trust to many of us, sir."

"In that you're exactly right. In Hunhau can we only find the definite trust in Him and in each other; one of our mantras. I have many names but this record call me by name of Ismael Leupold. Do you need other information of can you come up with a plan by yourself or do you need my help. I have couple possible plans ready."

"I thank you, sir, but I believe that to show my loyality it's best it I work by myself and get you out with only my power. Who knows, maybe Hunhau will give me pair of wings on this one."

"We can hope, but you're not a believer, my boy."

"I'm not, that's true, but no one know what I might become. Hunhau surely is someone I feel close with."

"Like do we all, like do we all," with that the line was cut. Shameka smiled at him. "I think he does trust you, he's just playing for a safe."

"Then we have good news I suppose." Alex smiled back at her, but right after that her smile blew out. "If only all my news would be good."

"What's wrong?"

"It's about your friend who ran last night. They've made it back to the city and found the SASS agents you were working with. I would have expected him to go straight home if he was a trustworthy friend for you, but he didn't he has joined the inspection. I fear he has really turned against you." The words were like cold water splashed to his face. Tom hadn't went home like Alex had told him? Tom always did what Alex told him to. He trusted Alex to know what to do. _Trust, trustworthy, _the words Shameka had said. It was true.

Tom now saw Alex as an enemy.


	17. The Prison Break

**Author's Note: **Yeah, I said I would no longer apologize for my updating lateness, so I won't. I haven't been home for a month so it was hard to write anyway. :P And I'll just say that for some reason prisons don't like to make their security arrangements known via internet so I had problems trying to make this as believable as possible. It was stressing me out, but here is what I managed to write.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Alex Rider, he and the books with all his adventures are owned by Anthony Horowitz.

**Chapter 17: **Prison Break

Alex calmed himself by taking several breaths. This would go just like he planned. He had promised Shameka and Ismael Leupold - Head Priest. Shameka was sure this was what he needed to get a new home himself. Shameka must be right, she always was. There was no reason for Alex to doubt her, she was the one who had save him when they'd drugged him and hit him and whispered torturing truths in his ear. She was the one who'd given him the warm bed and well filling meals. They'd taken him away from her several times, but Shameka hadn't given up and came to his aid when he needed it the most. In the end he had been left with her. She had saved him when no one else would come to him, saved him from his loneliest moments. She didn't treat him like an animal, like most adults - no make that people in general - did. Nobody listened to him because he was just a kid. They always told him how to act and what to do, forcing him to follow their will. Shameka was different. Lady Shameka.

Alex turned his eyes back to the prison like he had had them for last hour. In this job the patience was the key. He had figured that beside a guard's continuous watch by the gate there were barely any other guards walking around outside. He only needed to get past the main entrance and then the true mission would begin. That would not be the hard part; the hard part would be not to be seen in any cameras once he got in. The man behind the acrylic glass looked like he was about to fall asleep.

This was piece of cake, he'd been sneaking in places since he could walk and this was made easy. Though, he being dressed in blue football game shirt made him a bit too noticeable. He took a blueprint of the prison out of his pocket. Lady Shameka had given it to him when he had asked for it. It had been provided by the same person that made it sure that Head Priest's phone calls were not being taped. He found the laundry room from the map and built some raw plans; anything too detailed would be useless as it wouldn't leave any space for adapting by situation. Alex success was always because he never had too clear plans since nothing went like he wanted it to.

Alex decided it was time to move. He pulled out his blow pipe inserting one arrow. It felt like wasting an arrow when he used it on someone who was about to fall asleep anyway, but the area around the prison was open and there was no doubt the guard would suddenly feel wake if he saw a kid getting closer to the gate. In the worst case he'd even call someone for help so he'd know how to act. No, it was always better to play carefully, though he should save the arrows, he only had four of them left.

Only as Alex walked through the gate he realized that he didn't even know how long the guard would stay in sleep. Smithers and his always reliable information. That was MI6's fault, too; they never kept up what Alex knew of things. Lady Shameka had said she felt bad putting Alex through this type of actions but they had no one else for the work. She said she hated to use Alex's skills that he had learned in such an unmoral way. If it wasn't for MI6, Alex would never have had to face all pain he had, and he would still have Tom as his friend. The MI6 had made Tom Alex's enemy. They really were stealing everything from his life. But now he had power, he had support, he had somewhere to belong. He had the Messengers of Hunhau - and maybe someday the Great Hunhau, too.

To show his new home he deserved the faith they put on him, he set his childish grudge aside for now. He had a job to do. From the map he checked that he was still on the right way. Part of his plan's greatness was that it was a day; no one broke out during daylight when it was bright outside and they were easy to spot but the downside of the plan was that there were a lot of people walking around and someone walking around in street clothes without a guard was not what you saw every day in the hallways of a prison.

If he was still doing as he was told, not his own decisions, he would stop here. A foreign voice in his head would say that this was all wrong and he should go back. Abort the mission instead of sneaking in the laundry room to steal a prisoner's overall. He was so sick of always doing what he was told; this time Lady Shameka had given him the opportunity to choose. He had to choose but he didn't have to do what was wished from him. Tom didn't understand, that's why he had forced Alex to say goodbye. Tom was one of them; one of people who had a picture in their head of what Alex should be and become.

He changed his clothes and looked himself in the mirror. He still looked like a kid, but at least now he wasn't as noticeable with his blue shirt hidden by the ugly gray overall. Swiftly he slipped back into the hallway and thought he was clear as he started to head toward G-wing where prisoners that were considered dangerous were held.

His travel was interrupted by three big muscular guys. Oh, come on, Alex thought, he felt like whining out loud. Why did big guys always move in packs? "Do you actually know where you are, kid?" the biggest of the big guys sneered down on him. Alex gave him a blank look. "You really think there'd be any way for me to be in here wearing a coverall if I didn't." It seems that big guys rarely give credit for smart guys; the men cracked their knuckles moving closer to him. Alex took his fighting stance, too, ready for action, but they were interrupted as there were guards coming to them.

"What's the problem," one of the three guards asked. "Do we need to have some special treatment booked for you guys?"

The three offenders grit their teeth but made their way to the opposite direction, the guards but now seemed to notice who had been on the place of expected victim. "How old are you?" the same man asked stepping closer and forcing himself into Alex's personal space when bend down closer to him. Alex stared right back at him. "You don't even know who should be in here? Shit, breaking out of here must be a breeze." The emotionless look in the guards face hardened. "Shut up brat."

"'Brat'? How original. Do you mind? I would like to join my inmates in the table before they finish everything."

"Like they'd leave anything for you anyway. No, you come with us so we can check this with the boss."

"Fine," Alex shrugged. "Wouldn't want you throwing me out, takes away all the fun."

"What's with all the talk about breaking out?" one of the men who had stayed silent until then asked. Alex turned to look at him when he had just started to walk to the direction the first guard has beckoned to. "I believe you can tell I'm not like every other in here. Why do you think I am here, then?"

"By mistake most likely."

"Like anyone could get in a jail and overall by mistake."

"Then what are you trying to tell me?"

"Maybe I was too much to handle for other places," he gave them a smug smirk, which sent the guards laughing.

"A shrimp like you?" one of them managed out between his laughs.

"Yeah," he grinned. "Maybe the reason was that they were underestimating me."

"At least you got confidence, brat."

"Could be that," Alex admitted. "Or then I just really am that good." He showed a pepper spray he'd hid in his sleeve after snatching it off the first guard's belt when he'd bent over him. He sprayed it on the man's face and when he was trying to get the sting out of his eyes, Alex grabbed his baton to use as a weapon and his it on his temple. He made it circle around his hand cocking his head, cold grin on his face. The two guards left grabbed their own batons, but not nearly as elegantly as Alex; he _had _been training with batons before. Uncle Ian and his little ideas, wherever that one had come from Alex was now thanking him.

The two guards looked at each other and that made it clear for Alex they'd come at him with the maximum force – why else would they need to coordinate their moves – so when they attacked at the same time he was everything except surprised. He stepped out of the way of one of them, seeing his arm moving, so he bent down to avoid getting hit by a baton. The hallway wasn't that wide so he was immediately against a wall, but unlike the men he'd been ready for this fight and had calculated the distance of the walls before his attack, so when the other man charged at him, he boosted off the wall to get more power to his attack as he jumped at the man, baton ready to hit. He swung his arm so that the baton hit the guard on solar plexus to wind him. The blinded man tried to come to him with bare hands and not able to see anything but blurry shadows, Alex jumped out of his way but he'd been neglecting the man he'd side-stepped a while ago and got tackled to the floor.

The guard was bigger than him, so he was pretty much squashed under him. Alex squirmed under him. He could feel heavy breaths on his face as the man did his best to keep him from moving. He was trying to tire him by overpowering him. Still Alex, with luck in his side once again, managed to move enough to get his fingers to his left sock where there was a belt with the anaesthetic arrows. He took one of them and hit the spike on the man. After couple seconds the man went limp and Alex pushed him off himself surprising the one guard left as he jumped back up, out of breath but ready to act.

They both took their stances. Alex took another baton from the sleeping man and held them to protect him while he tried to catch his breath. The guard attacked, and all Alex had strength to do was to avoid him with the help of the batons: one of them blocked the man while other headed to his side but was dodged.

Alex's breathing was heavy and the guard smiled contently. "Too tired to go on anymore?" he was clearly imagining his boss's reaction when he alone brought the rebel in. "You wish," Alex replied, trying to sound confident, in all honesty he needed time to rest, his muscles were barely functioning the way he liked them to. Though, now he had once again the underestimating on his side.

His leg gave in under his weight since it was too tired. The guard took this chance and attacked again, which was when Alex acted. He pushed back up gathering all strength to right hand that hit the baton down on the guard's coccyx leading his legs to give in and the man to fall to the floor. Then he finished his feat with an as hard kick as he still could to the base of the guard's skull sending him to unconsciousness.

He would have loved to stay and even his breathing but he had to work before someone noticed something in the cameras, he had chosen somewhat blind spot but if there was anyone smart enough, it'd be easy to see that three men had suddenly disappeared. He headed to the direction he knew the diner to be.

When he reached the long tables, his eyes danced over people on them. He didn't know what Head Priest looked like, but there weren't many possibilities. Most of skinny guys looked afraid and there was only one that was eating calmly in the middle of big muscled guys. He looked smart enough and since Ismael Leupold was charismatic, it was very well possible that he'd gotten people talked to his side even in prison. He had gray hair and pair of steely eyes as Alex noticed when the man watched him, then instead of coming to him, Leupold turned back to his food. Alex clicked his tongue walking to the man. "Ismail Leopold," there was no longer doubt in Alex's mind. The man turned to him. "Alex Rider," he replied getting his tablemates to eye Alex dubiously. "Calm down. I come in peace," Alex lifted his hands in surrender. "I hope you're not planning to take them all with you, sir" he added to Head Priest nodding towards many heads turned to him.

"No, no, just couple most loyal ones. So, do we have to leave immediately or can I finish my meal first?"

"We had better be going as soon as possible. You don't have anything you need from your cell, I hope."

"Yes, everything important is always on me."

"Good, now if you and your men would stand up and look like you're going to get me somewhere more quiet, I doubt the guards would find it non-suspicious that I led you lot out of here." Head Priest nodded standing up. Come on men, let's show this runt who orders around here." Two of the men surrounded Alex, who looked like he was a tad bit intimidated as they started to out of the diner. "Hey, Leopold, where you taking the tiny one?"

"He's got a big mouth on him, been causing problems for others too. This makes him act his place."

"Well, if it gives less trouble for us," the guard shrugged letting them pass.

"Is he the one you got with you?" Alex asked because the guard has let them go way too easily.

"No, but I chose this way out because he has the least motivation of all guards," Head Priest answered as his men left their places around Alex to give him freedom to move. Alex crouched down to take the blow pipe off where it was on a belt around his right shin. He put one arrow in to be ready, but he didn't have to use it. During the lunch most of the guarding was focused on the diner. They got quite freely to the front gate, though Alex knew they would show in some cameras, but when they were ready to sneak out they found two men on the gate, one of them was still behind the acrylic glass.

Alex took out his last arrow, keeping it ready in his hand as he blew the other on its way to the guard behind the glass through an opening he was using to talk to his colleague when the man fell down, his mate got worried and in his worry turned his back to Alex. The final arrow went flying.

"And now, gentlemen, we run," Alex sprinted out to the open the rest of the group following him. Some yelling could be heard and Alex cursed. When the luck had been on his side for this long, couldn't it have stayed there just for couple minutes more? For long enough for them to get out of there. And then there was an alarm. "Got any guns?" he asked his comrades as men with guns pulled out ran out through the gate. "Didn't think so, then we'd better get our speed up."

"Don't you have any ride with you?" one of the head priest's loyal men asked him.

"I couldn't compromise the mission by leaving a car anywhere it could be found and the bike I used would do us no good right now, so you better just keep on running. We'll pick some ride up when we see one." As he ran he opened the overall taking them off while he still kept moving. For him it was possible since the overall was already too big on him.

As they kept running Alex heard cars exiting the building. "You didn't tell me there were cars!" he yelled at the prisoners with him. "You didn't think how the guards got to work?" Head Priest asked.

"Well, I have never been a legal captive, what was I to know?"


	18. The Security Tape and Tom's knowledge

**Author's Note: **Okay, I read the last chapter again, and will probably rewrite it. It's rubbish so unrealistic and messy, but it was kind of forced, too… -.- So this chapter is longer and I think it's a lot better than the one before.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Alex Rider books or anything you find familiar, and I do not get any profit of writing this.

**Chapter 18: **The Security Tape and Tom's knowledge

It had been three days since Tom and Megan had lifted a ride to the city and then, using Alex's phone and transmitters, they'd found the SASS headquarters. At the moment they had stepped in and told them who they were, Megan had been taken to an interrogation room to base an interrogation she would come the next day. During that time Tom made it to the agents he knew. He tried to convince them to make a charge in the cult's hiding place. When they'd gotten all Megan's basic information, they let her out but told them they'd be located in one of their safe houses until they were sure neither of them was in danger.

Tom had returned the next day with Megan. While Megan was in the actual interrogation, Tom spent his day trying to talk the agents around to his idea. When they would not listen to him, he decided to make a different offer; he wanted them to let him in the investigation. He wanted to know how Alex was now that Tom had gotten away, if his situation had gotten worse or if he'd got a chance to escape, too. At the end of the day he left with little success.

His third morning back in freedom sent him right back to the SASS. Megan stayed back in the safe house since she didn't have any other responsibilities there. Already familiar enough with the buildings layout, Tom made his way straight to the director's office. He came in there right as the man was finishing a phone call and they engaged in a staring competition. Both knew what the other would say if they opened their mouth, so they wouldn't want to be the one to start it.

In the end director Patel made up his mind to be the mature one and opened his mouth. "I doubt you have any good reason to be here today either."

"I want you to let me in the investigation."

"How many times do you need me tell it to you?"

"I could be of use to you!"

"Just how could a school kid help us with all this? You barely made it here when you got out."

"But I know Alex best of all people. I can predict his moves somewhat if we make a move. You wouldn't want him to get killed now, would you? You wanted to use him for your own purposes, too."

"We can't go making moves like that blindly. We have no idea how much they have people in there, or how organized they are, how many of them are innocent and how many of them know how to fight. We don't know who their leader at the moment is as their head priest is behind bars. We can't just take out the big guns and make an attack. Besides, if Alex's as good as you've told us he is, he should have been able to make a run for it by now if even you and Ms. Springfield managed to."

"But I'm telling you I'm afraid our escape might have put him in a harder situation!"

Before director Patel had time to answer him, De Lange walked hastily to the room. "Director, we have something to show to you."

"What is it?" Both Patel and Tom gave De Lange a hard stare wondering what his hurry was all about. The special agent glanced at Tom before walking to his boss, he leaned in and whispered something to him. Tom didn't hear what, but as it brought the director's eyes on him, he didn't have that many doubts in his mind and they were soon confirmed: "Mr. Harris, I think we got some use for your knowledge of Agent Rider." Even though he had been more or less waiting for it, Tom's eyes got wide. What had they learned of Alex?

No one said a word as they lead Tom through groups of tables of different team to the one where rest of the team were standing around a flat TV screen with what looked like a security tape on it. "Have they heard of Alex? Does that mean he's managed to escape?" Tom wanted to have some answers since none of this made sense to him.

"Why don't you watch it and tell us what you see," came the only answer he would get so Tom turned to the screen. Someone must have clicked the play as the picture started to move and he saw Alex being brought to the picture by three men who looked like prison guards - and he was wearing a jail overalls.

"This can't be a new tape; this doesn't make any sense!" he whined, trying to get what was point watching something like that now when they should have been on their way to save him, not admire Alex's work.

"Agent Nebel found it just now. It was taken some hours ago, three prisoners escaped today."

"And Alex was one of the prisoners, how is that even possible isn't he still back in the forest?" Tom could now concentrate to the agents because Alex was no longer in the picture. What was the point to watch it any longer as the subject of the investigation was not there any longer?

"No, agent Rider was not registered as a prisoner."

"Then what it the bloody hell is this!" Tom threw his hands towards the screen. "Why do I have to watch this, we should-"

"That is why," agent Nebel said, beckoning to the screen once again. Tom didn't really see the point of staring it since Alex's brief occurrence had already been passed, but as he looked his mouth dropped open. Alex was on the picture again, but this time there were no guards with him and he looked out of breath. "Would someone like to explain this to me?" Tom asked, eyes on Alex, who had just glanced at the camera.

"Three prisoners that escaped were Ismael Leupold and his two loyal inmates Julian McAnemy and Devide Contee. Leupold is the head priest of the cult that jailed the two of you."

"So you're telling me Alex is helping them?" He couldn't believe this, but the stopped picture where Alex glanced at the camera – most likely a subconscious move – was a definite proof. Tom felt himself dropping to a chair that had been put ready behind him. What was going on with Alex? What about Tom's nightmares about what the cloaked people had done to Alex just because Tom had escaped and taken one of their own with him while at it? Was this the reason Alex had told him to run by himself; he had chosen the enemy side?

Questions piled in his head and he could not hear any word the agents said to him. Alex had betrayed him. Alex, who had several times told Tom he was happy to have someone he could talk to about anything. Alex who had been Tom's best friend for a long time. Alex who had been fighting for justice and MI6. Alex who had risked his life to stop bad guys from killing people. What had happened? Tom just had to know.

"I'm joining you in this investigation," he announced to the agents, he had made his decision, if the agents would not do as he wanted, he would find his way in even if he had to force it. The whole team was looking at him, like he had just grown a color changing pair of horns.

"You are a civilian, we cannot let you in it," Patel said, crossing his hands as if in defense, which was ridiculous for his opponent was a teenage boy. Though, that might have been the exact reason he had to put up a strong defense; teenagers hardly listen what adults tell them to do. Tom was a normal case of a teenager.

"You can always tell me not to, but I'm a citizen of Great Britain, and you aren't going to send me home since you want to keep me here in case you find some use for me against Alex. And while you're keeping me here, you need to keep me safe. Do you actually want me going on this investigation by myself?" Tom asked. He had to give himself a pat to back for that was what he'd expect Alex to say if he was in somewhat similar situation, he needed to be similar to Alex, that way things would work out eventually. Though, it wasn't likely he would get to witness it for a while now as they were on the opposite sides.

De Lange pulled his boss away and Tom watched after them for some time, he saw their whispered conversation getting warmer and warmer by following the length their arms reached. It wasn't hard to guess what they were talking about. While he waited them to come to conclusion he turned to search for the remote which was on agent Nebel. "Cane I have that?" The man gave it to him shrugging, and Tom started the part with Alex from beginning again, trying to burn every possible detail to his head as if he could find some hidden explanation to everything from it.

Tom needed to get in, even when he had no idea how he would act when he came face to face with the new Alex. He still felt an obligation to smack some sense to Alex, even if it'd kill him. Tom was sure that if he just got to talk some more with Alex, he could bring him back to the right side of the tracks with him.

He watched the short clip of Alex two times and was on its third when the two leaders came back to him. Patel gave him a resigning smile. "We'll let you in this with us. We don't want UK or MI6 on our backs if something happened to you, as we are sure they would." It was clear by the director's tone that he wasn't a big fan of the MI. "But you got to follow this team's orders to the word, not do whatever you please. If we tell you to sit still, you will. If we tell you to put some papers in order, you will."

"Yes, sir." Tom made a short nod.

The woman that had introduced herself to Tom as agent Anthony came to him. "Don't try too hard; we don't need another teenage agent created from all this."

"Don't worry, agent, I just want Alex to come back to his senses. I've lived through enough these days to tell me I definitely do not want this to be my future occupation, I'll still aim to be a professional football player." He smiled a little, happy that he had reached his goal. "Then, ladies and gentlemen, if I don't have anything to do here today, I think I should inform my roommate about all this. So, excuse me leaving early today. I'll come back tomorrow." It was still early, only little after noon, but Tom knew talking with Megan would take some time. The woman had set Tom to the role of her lost little brother, which Tom didn't really mind but he could already guess that she would not like to hear him joining in the investigation and going after Alex.

His usual ride was waiting for him at the parking hall and his ordered driver was still sitting in the front, as he usually was. Tom had no idea how he spent his time in the car as Tom was up in the office, he had not once come down to found the car empty. If the man hadn't had a gun on him and Tom didn't have to have protection, he would have told the man to live a little, to let loose and relax while he didn't have Tom to take care of. But the man had told Tom he stayed in the car so no one could surprise them with a car bomb, which had made Tom happy of him being there in matter of seconds. After hearing that Tom had had a need to check under the car every time before he got in – just in case.

"Tom, you can really stop doing that every time," David – the driver – said to him as Tom was kneeling next to the car, he stepped out to open the separately locked door to Tom. They weren't going to take any chances.

"No, it's the opposite. Now that I've gotten a permit to join the investigation, the messengers could see me as a threat. I need to be more careful with my moves."

"I don't mean to offend you or anything, but I doubt they'll see you as a threat. Besides, you'll always have us professionals around you in case something like that happens. We'll take all necessary actions to keep you safe. That's why it is not necessary for you to check the car each time you want to go somewhere."

Tom stood and brushed his jeans. "Ok, maybe I'll just trust you in your job. That way I'll have energy to think some other things."

David smiled at him as he climbed in the black SUV Chrysler.

"You're back surprisingly early," Megan greeted him from the kitchen cheerfully. Tom felt weird with the way she acted around him; she had no longer called him Harley but he couldn't be entirely sure if she'd really gotten it that he was not him. Still it was new and a good feeling to walk in a house that had such a warm feeling and be greeted that eagerly. It felt like ages since he had last felt like that, before the divorce his parents were fighting all the time and after it they both had done their best to bribe him on their respective sides, and that didn't make Tom feel exceptionally loved.

"Yeah, actually I got you some news," he hesitated, twiddling with end of his sleeve. Megan noticed this and dropped what she was doing to give him her full attention, which only seemed to make it worse. "What is it, Tom?"

"I finally got them to let me in the investigation." Silence fell to the room. Megan stared at him eyes wide and mouth slightly open. Tom cleared his throat. "It's good, right? I mean you had no objections to me going to the head quarters even when you knew what I was going there for."

"Of course I didn't; I didn't expect them to give you an okay!"

Tom could see that Megan barely could keep her voice in control; he brought his hands up in both calming and defending gesture. "Calm down Megan. It's not like I'll be running around. I'll mostly be sitting around the office anyway as I doubt Alex will be so easy to find."

"But when they get a sign of him you'll go running right into a danger." She fisted her hand so hard her knuckles turned white. "And if he really has betrayed you he will not hesitate to kill you."

"He does have a heart and a conscience," Tom tried to reassure her, but wasn't doing that good a job. Megan shook her head, gritting her teeth.

"If he really has a heart, wouldn't he have explained what was going on so you wouldn't have to worry? And if he has a conscience then how come this is called an investigation and there is no sign of him coming back?"

This time Tom found nothing to say. Her questions had a valid point. Alex had let him get away, true, but he hadn't told Tom a thing about his own plans and now he'd been caught on camera breaking fugitives out of jail. If someone had told this to Tom without any evidence, he would have blamed them for trying to defame Alex. Now as all this rushed over him, he fell to the closest chair, defeated.

"Then how should I process this situation? I can't just go home, and I've already told my parents I wouldn't be returning 'until the doctors give me their permission to fly', and I can't just sit here doing nothing. I need to know what happened to Alex. He was breaking people out of jail, Megan. That's not even close to the real Alex; I need to get him back." His head dove in his hands and soon he felt a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"I'm so sorry you have to go through something like this, but I don't want you getting hurt. Haven't you been hurt enough because of Alex? Heck, I was the one kidnapping you in the beginning and even I can see that. You got to let him choose the way he wants or you'll kill yourself with all this stress you have on your body. I haven't seen you sleeping all that time we've been here," she said squeezing gently. "You have fast become like a brother to me. I don't want to lose another brother."

"Me being part of an investigation doesn't mean that I will be in any danger, I think it will actually make my sleep better as I have some kind of grab of the situation, and a possibility to get to face Alex. How could I let this opportunity slip away from me?"

Megan breathed silently next to him causing him to have an urge to watch what look she had on her face, but he didn't have enough courage to see the pain and worry that more than likely were showing on it. After a long silence Megan sighed, "Fine, I won't try talking you out of it, but I want to be on track about what you're doing and where you're going so I don't have to spend all my time worrying about you since I can be much more useful around the house without it."

Tom finally lifted his eyes to Megan's, giving her a small smile. "Thanks, I don't take it granted, you know. The worry."

"I know, just keep me in tab."

"I will, and I don't have to come up with any silly excuses either," his smile got bigger. Megan caught up with him immediately smiling back at him.

"How the heck did you come up with getting hit by a ball to head, falling and hitting it, and how did your parents buy it so easily?" there was a sound of a chuckle in her words. The smile in Tom's face turned to grin.

"I have little tendency to get into accidents like that. They were probably ready to get a phone call like that when they left me come alone with Alex."

"I start to think it's better to keep you locked in a room that has all furniture and walls soft so you can survive," she laughed at him and he joined her.

"You're not the first to tell me that."

They spent the evening relaxing. Tom felt like a heavy load had been lifted off his shoulders as he could find out what is going on with Alex. He had so many different theories and reasons for Alex's actions that he wanted to verify. Megan could not tell him not to do what he wanted when she saw it did him good; she just decided to make sure Tom could feel relaxed and at ease in their current "home". They asked some SASS men to get them some pizza and movies and spent their night like in any normal household, enjoying themselves before what was sure to be emotionally and physically stressing time would come to them.

* * *

**Author's Note II: **The idea of Tom getting hit to head with a ball came from a very lovely reviewer **Ever and Ever**, from long, long time ago in the chapter two. I liked the idea then, but didn't have a right moment to use it before now. :P Thanks anyway to him/her for mentioning it and I hope they're still reading this to see that little reference. ^^


	19. About Trust and Distrust

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Alex Rider –books, they belong to Anthony Horowitz. Neither do I get any payment of writing this, it's simply to satisfy my own needs.

**Author's Note: **I finished writing this quite late, so I didn't have energy to proof read it, I apologize for any mistakes you find.

**Chapter 19: **About Trust and Distrust

Alex was sitting in the great dining hall eating breakfast among the rest of the messengers like he had for a week now, after he had freed the Head Priest, the messengers had stopped treating him like an outsider and after he'd been eating in the hall for couple days he, too, had felt more like he was part of them. He'd found out that the messengers usually ate in same tables every morning, so he'd even made acquaintances with his tablemate and now they could have a conversation without a tense atmosphere.

They were talking about Lady Shameka that morning. She had given quite heavy punishment for some people who had collected banned objects, like fake IDs, brand clothes and makeup – all things only Alex had privilege to because of his special missions. All of them were happy about it.

"I'm so happy they're watching that the rules are being followed. A community can't work if people don't have the same rules," Lenka, a young man in his twenties said resolutely. Others in the table nodded, too.

"Though, I can well understand why they'd get those urges when they've seen me walking around in my unique clothes and with the IDs I have in my room," Alex added muttering as he shoved a forkful of potjiekos into his mouth. A reassuring hand came to his shoulder; he looked up to his right to a woman about in the middle of her life. "Don't think about it too much Alex; it's not your fault that they couldn't follow the rules."

"Thanks, Lefu, but I know that an exception can wake up wants that would usually stay hidden," he scoffed. These days he had felt tired that some people just couldn't look at him like everybody else. The punished boys, too, they just couldn't accept that Alex could come out of nowhere and suddenly be on his sure way to the top. They were a group of teenager boys who had been ordered to isolation for two days just because they were jealous of Alex's privileges.

"But you are wearing a cloak now, too. That means you're not an exception anymore, you're like the rest of us. They were just stupid," Thandiwe, Lenka's little sister, wondered not understanding what was going on. She had told Alex she was 13 but sometimes her comments were so naïve that Alex wasn't sure if he believed it or not, she didn't look like she was too much younger than he himself. And he wasn't going to ask Lenka if his sister was lying because the rule number one of their community was: _Only in Messengers and Hunhau can you put your trust. _If he went asking if his fellow was lying, it was like shouting that he couldn't trust their word. If she had been pulling his leg, her brother should tell it to him sooner or later. And he didn't want to anger Lenka, either, as the boy had taken him under his wing making sure no one had any bad intentions ready for Alex. He was grateful of it; it had been one of the reasons that had made his fitting in a lot easier.

"Yes, but I still have a permission to hold banned things in my hold."

"Alex," Lenka started seriously, Alex felt Lefu tightening her hold on Alex to tell him she agreed with what he was about to say. It was clear they had had a talk about him before. "You blame yourself too easily. You helped Head Priest back home and have then had several jobs that you have finished perfectly, and you're the youngest ever join in a collecting. You are special – don't go around cussing yourself all the time. Most of the residents just live here, where they can pursue their belief and the most they do as messengers is to partake in the masses. You are maybe the most honourable young messenger I've seen. Be proud. "

"Excuse me," came a familiar voice behind Alex, he turned to greet Leslie. "Hi there, Les." The kid smiled brightly at him. "Got something for me?" Leslie had been the one to deliver him all messages from Lade Shameka and Head Priest.

"Yes, Head Priest asks for you."

"Thank you," he stood up and started to head for the door of the hall, Leslie following him. They both knew that was not necessary, but it had become a habit they both were happy to follow. "So, how are things going with Puleng, she still treating you the same?"

"Yes, nothing changed in there," Leslie's face turned solemn as he talked about the girl who had been at his back for a long time now. Alex grinned.

"I still think it's only because she likes you. I can always talk to her if you'd like." The boy looked as dubious as he always did when Alex talked about Puleng like that.

"Why would she badmouth me every time she sees me, if she likes me?"

"She doesn't know how to handle it," his grin got wider. Leslie acted so polite it was easy to forget his age, but during moments like these Alex was glad to see that the little boy was still there. Leslie shook his head hard. "No way."

Alex brushed his hand through the younger's hair. "See you later, Pal." before knocking on the door. After being called to come in, he opened it waving to Leslie when he closed it behind him.

"Good morning Alex," Leopold said as soon as Alex was facing him. "I'm sorry to say, but we have yet again a situation we think only you can help us out of." This sounded familiar, Alex knew what speech to expect.

"No need to circle the subject, sir. What is it you would like me to do this time?"

"We need you to collect us a file, but there's a thing that worries me. I wouldn't want to put you in danger because of us; you're still a fresh face here."

"No, I'm happy to do my part. Please tell me where I should collect this file from."

Leopold stayed silent staring at his hands, but when he lifted them to Alex's, they had determination in them. "The SASS headquarters." Alex's mouth opened in surprise. He repeated Head Priest's words; not a question, not a statement – just words coming out of his mouth to register better in his brains.

"Won't they capture me immediately if they see me getting closer them? You've told me that they have begun an investigation about me, sir."

"They have investigation about all of us, and you're the only one I can see coming out ok of all this."

"'What is this file about, sir?"

"It's about me, and the messengers. I'm afraid it also has names of people I've recruited. The SASS thinks of us as criminals, they will arrest anyone whose name is on that list. I don't want to put a future like that on my children. None of you."

Alex took a breath. "Sure, sir. I'll take care it won't come to that. May I leave now or do you have any more specific information about this mission."

"Alex! I've told you I don't like you calling them missions, we don't want you to think we're anything like those beasts who forced you to work for them.

"I'm sorry, sir. I guess it's still such a strong memory."

"We wish to help you forget it. You may leave."

"Yes, sir. I'll be heading off soon."

"Good luck on your task for the community."

"Thank you, sir."

Late that evening Alex and Lenka got in a car to head to Johannesburg. Some hours later Alex stepped out of the car about a block away from the building he aimed at. He was wearing a uniform that local pizzeria and few pizza boxes on his hands although only one of them had a pizza in them. He also had three big soda cups which all had drinks in them, just in case.

He noticed a bike leaning against a streetlight, locked of course, but apparently being part of the Messengers of Hunhau gave him better recourses than working to a secret agency of military investigation in Great Britain. He took one of his pizza boxes and opened it to get himself a lock-pick set; his new home had taught him new skills. He picked the bike's lock – pretty simple really – and took it for himself so his cover was more convincing.

He took a high speed that deliver boys used to get as many pizzas delivered in as short time as possible. If he was a teenager ready to get a job he more than likely was in hurry to get the money. The bikes brakes screeched as he stopped suddenly in front of the headquarters building.

"Delivery from Sara's Pizza." Only reply he got was a faint groan, the guard looked like he was ready to fall asleep.

"So… Can I just go in?" Alex asked unsurely as he stopped to look at the man behind the desk. When there was no reaction whatsoever he shrugged and kept going. Sure, he didn't mind if this was going to be easy. But of course that was when the man bounced up. "Where do you think you're going," he demanded loudly. Alex groaned like any frustrated teenager. "How about to do my job?" he answered, though he did turn to face the man.

"I need to check you."

"For what? In case I'm hiding a gun in a soda cup?"

"Don't start with me here brat, I'm just here to do my job."

"So am I."

"I got to check what you have inside the boxes."

"What a surprise," Alex muttered under his breath, but it was made for the guard to hear. He receiver a strong glare and fake a flinch when he opened the top box. The smell of the pizza flew out strong and Alex saw the man moisturizing his lips. Alex brought the box closer to the man innocently, making it easier for him to see there was nothing extra inside it.

"See, a normal pepperoni pizza with extra onion, and here," he put the first box on the desk and opened a second one next to it. "We have also an incredibly normal pizza with Hawaii stuffing." The guard swallowed the saliva the pizzas brought to his mouth. "Plus three big cokes." Alex finished putting the drinks to the desk, too."Now, can I please go before the pizzas turn cold and the drinks warm up?"

"Yeah, sure, do your job."

"Thank you, could you tell me which floor I should take these to, the delivery is for someone named Lucas or something."

"Lucas, he's should be in the 4th floor."

"Thanks," he said again as he walked to the elevator the guard had opened from the desk.

To his surprise there wasn't a camera in the elevator, at least not one he could see, but he was not going to risk his mission by being stupid and taking off his cap now rather than in a toilet. It's not like an office building would have that many personnel in a very late evening so he'd unlikely be seen. When the elevator blinged open in the fourth floor, he stood out and searched the first toilet he could find.

He quickly checked that all stalls were empty before taking his uniform shirt off revealing standard black t-shirt under it. Then he took off the cap and then opened his third pizza box. He emptied it of his equipment. It held the lock-pick set, his fan scarf and a glass circle cutter. He hung all these around his belt. When ready he walked to the bathroom window, hiding his uniform behind a trashcan right next to it.

The window opened without any troubles so he tied the scarf's tassels on one end around a heater and the other end around his waist, the fall from fourth floor was long and he couldn't deny that he felt little nervous thinking what he was about to do. He had never actually tested if the scarf could hold his weight. There were no other options available, though, so he swung his legs out the window, holding tight on it as he turned so that he was facing the wall. He closed his eyes and took a calming breath before letting the scarf support his body weight as he fell. The fall was short and fast and when he opened his eyes he was staring in a third floor toilet window.

Letting the air of his calming breath out of his lungs as he took the glass cutter to make a hole to the window he could fit through. With a perfect control of his body he'd gained during his years of training he swung himself inside and landed on the floor in a feline-like way; smoothly and with no noise. Reflexively his head turned to check the room to find it empty. There was no time for feeling a relief as he had more than once seen that the feeling often led to things turning complicated.

Keeping his steps soft Alex sneaked to the toilet's door to peek to the corridor. No one on his left or right. Swiftly he exited the room and, keeping close to wall, made his way to the direction he'd been told the archive was on the floor. The hardest part to come was to get to the archive, to get there Alex would have to cross the open area with desks that would cause a risk of being seen. But, it was the only way to the other side of the floor, so he had to take that risk.

Cautiously he peeked around every corner before hurrying around it so that he would not be seen. This wasn't a job to take lightly. Nearly every personnel in the building had at least one gun on them and even though it was late there could be several officials in. Alex on the other hand had no weapon on him since all space in the pizza box had been taken by what he needed to get in.

He had made it safe through several corridors, but the closer he got the open work space the more nervous he came. His steps pace got up and he knew his steps were getting heavier, but he doubted it was enough to get someone to notice him. It was currently the only way he could get the extra adrenaline worked out of his system before it would come out as barely controllable impulsive actions – like running through open area to get over it soon and make it easier to be noticed.

Before the next turn around a corner came, Alex stopped and leaned against the wall as tightly as possible so that it would take a partial second longer to see him if someone was to turn around the corner. He stood still, breathing and trying to get the perfect control back. This wasn't part he was about to risk for some body hormones that wanted to make his body act unreasonably for the situation.

He closed his eyes – but didn't forget to keep his hearing alert – bringing to his mind what he knew about the room he was about to rush in. Where were the possible exits and how long the way to the opposite side was, also how many people were stationed to work there and statistically what were chances that some of the teams' members were still working. If he was thoroughly prepared, there was higher chance for things going his way.

Feeling like things were back in his control he bended his neck to see to the room. Against the way he'd wished things to be, there was someone, but that someone looked like he was sleeping, taken by their stature: slumped against a table, arms under their head as a pillow. "Damn," Alex hissed through his teeth, but it wasn't like this was the end of the world.

Alex made sure his breathing was steady and quiet before he started his way across the room. The problem here was that he had to be quiet _and _fast in case there was someone else here, too, but they were currently out on an errand or something. But if he was trying to be too quick, he might end up messing around and waking the person sleeping three desks to his left.

His feet as soft as physically possible, Alex walked forward, but his shoes came and decided to work against him. As he took a step, his sneakers rubber sole squeaked against the floor. Alex froze and squatted so that a desk was sheltering him from being seen if the person noticed the sound. He didn't however hear any indication that he'd been heard, so he dared to peek over the table to see the form still just the same as before. He kept going, being if possible even more careful with his steps.

He made it to the archive door and took out his lock-pick set. Eyes staying on the slumped form, he took the tools he'd need to open the door. He couldn't open the door blindly; alas he had to take his eyes off them to get his work done.

Lock was open soon and as Alex slipped in he left the doors slightly open so he could hear if the person in the work area woke up. Alex took a small torch out of his pocket to help make it through the boxes in the dark room. It didn't take him long to figure out how the alphabetical system went so he went to the shelf marked with L. He took out a box with Ismael Leupold's name on it and laid it on a table that had been set to a corner of the room.

There were many files and Head Priest had only talked about one. He was debating between taking just some of the files or the whole box when his instinct told him to get ready. He turned on his heels.

"What do you think you're doing?" There was a familiar figure standing on the doorway. A very familiar figure with spiky hair.

"Tom." Alex surely hadn't expected to see him when he took this mission. What was Tom doing in the empty secret service headquarters at night anyway?

"Alex," Tom replied coldly. Too coldly for Tom. Tom wasn't cold; he was innocent and always making fun of everything.

Alex turned back to the box. If this was what it came to, he wouldn't have a chance to take the whole box with him, but then he should decide which files to take. He did make sure, though, to keep Tom in his sight. One by one he went through the file names. Files from youth, not needed. _Associates_, definitely needed, he took it out.

"Alex, stop that now. You're not really helping them, are you?"

"They're my family." _Crimes of Suspicion, _could be needed, could have information of collections. _Relationships and Personal Life,_ definitely needed, could have some important information; he took it out, too. _Links to Foreign Countries. Convicted of crimes. Witness statements. _No, no, no.

"Your _family_?" Tom sounded incredulous.

"Yeah, they've done me more than anyone else."

"What about the times they took you to torture?" Tom was speaking louder, which was bad. They shouldn't get noticed. Tom Alex could handle but to take on trained agents without a gun and in a closed space as the archive was would be equal to a suicide. He quickly eyed through the rest of the files. Nothing really caught his eye. Oh, _Leads_, that should be taken, too.

He took the three files, hiding them on his back under his shirt, and then put the box back to where he had taken it from.

"It was stupid of me not to trust them. They gave me no reason to be against them; they just acted along their belief, much like you do when you don't think about your actions before hand. That is your belief, there is Hunhau, and we already give up so much just to be able to live like we want. We support each other and live for each other. We have people around us we can trust unconditionally and tell everything without being judged. We might do some things differently than most of society, but that doesn't mean what we do is bad or wrong." His voice was quiet but menacing, each sentence he was getting closer to Tom, who looked like it took all of him not to back away.

"God, what have they done to you?" Tom asked wide-eyes, eyes glittering.

"Nothing, Tom." Alex gave him a crooked smile. "That's kind of the point. They have forced me into nothing, and they've let me act my age. If I feel like starting a tantrum, I'm allowed to do that without people telling me I should act mature. If I feel like not doing what they ask me to, it's perfectly fine. Only thing I _have to do _is follow the rules that apply to all of us." Now Alex was standing inches of Tom's face. When he made to step around his ex-best friend, Tom stepped to his way again.

"I can't let you go, Alex. I'm consulting the SASS in their investigation about you."

"You really want to be my enemy, don't you?"

"No, Alex, I don't," Tom slammed his fist to door frame. "I really don't, but you're acting in a way that worries me. I feel like I should bring you back to be the Alex I've known for years."

"So, you say you don't want to be my enemy, but wish me to return to the life I wasn't happy living?"

"You telling me you weren't happy?"

"That is exactly what I'm telling you."

"What about all our good time together, what about Jack?"

"How much can our 'good times' mean if your that eager to stand on the opposite side to me? And Jack never did anything to get me out of the life I was forced to live."

"She was worried of you, still is, though I have given her some phone calls explaining why we still haven't returned. Never telling the truth, or course."

"Yeah? Well-" before he could continue, he heard running steps coming down a hallway. "Wow, you actually called them before coming to me, I guess I underestimated your abilities to think tactically."

Tom grinned. "What can I say, I have hidden talents." And there Alex could see a hint of the Tom he thought he knew.

"Too bad they didn't tell you to keep enough distance to me," Alex pointed out. When two agents game running to the room, Alex twisted Tom's arm behind his back to use him as a hostage. One of the agents was Deo De Lange, other Alex hadn't been introduced to, so he must have been someone assigned solely to guard Tom.

"Alex Rider," De Lange growled at him as their eyes locked.

"Special agent De Lange, still using kids in your investigation, I see." Slowly he started to make his way to a side keeping Tom to the gun points.

"Let him go, Rider, he is your friend." Alex noticed that De Lange had changed from using his first name to his last name. Opposite to what was advised to do in hostage situations.

"It was his choice to join you and so it was his choice to go against me, too. How can I call someone doing that my friend?"

"Alex, I really am your- argh!" Tom groaned as Alex twisted his arm further still.

"I have no need to kill him. You just need to let me go back and no one will get hurt."

"I can't do that Alex. MI6 has declared you a traitor and a dangerous one at that; we have orders to hand you over to either them or Interpol if we get you. Letting someone like that go is a big mistake."

Alex's eyebrows rose. "So, when I'm not that easy to control anymore, they declare me an enemy. Why doesn't that surprise me?"

"And do you think the Messengers would treat you any differently if you declined to go hunt with them?"

"Collect. Not to hunt, to collect."

"Seems similar to me."

"Many of those called to Hunhau have done crimes. The one I went to collect had raped several young girls; Head Priest told me that Hunhau has reason for his every call."

"So you've already killed for them. They're turning you to monster, Rider."

"A monster, a freak, what's the difference, I've been called that for a long time, and always because they didn't know or understand my life. This is just the same, except I am no longer alone in it."

He had reached the side of the room. Now all he had to do was run, but he couldn't do that as long as he had Tom in his hold. There was no point going by the plan anymore, going back up to collect his stuff would be stupid waste of time, but the fire escape could still be used. He hit Tom's temple to a wall and pushed him to ground as he sprinted the way exit signs showed.

He only heard one set of footsteps following him. As he'd expected one of the men had stayed to make sure Tom was fine. Alex was pretty sure the one following him was De Lange. He could hear a gunshot and jumped to a side, ducking as he kept going the way green lights directed him.

The door to fire escape was locked. Alex could see it from afar so he took his glass cutter off his belt. This was a way to use it, too. He hit it against a window next to the door and then repeated this when the window cracked. De Lange didn't want to harm him, the gunshot had been shot only to scare him – that much was clear now that the man only yelled orders at him, although he was almost a sitting duck.

Alex smashed his elbow and shoulder to the window breaking it and himself to freedom. He jumped out and ran down the stairs as fast as he could, skipping many of them as he went. Down there was his stolen bike waiting. He had meant to return it, but emergency permits culpable means. And then he was going.

He cycled like there was fire after his ass all the way to the train station where he and Lenka had agreed to rendezvous.


	20. Author's Note: I'm dropping this story

I'm dropping this story.

I'm sorry. I hate when authors do this with stories, but I am dropping all my old In-Progress stories now. I actually started studying writing some time ago and unfortunately that has currently made it impossible for me to continue with the work I started. The way to see things is just too different to some months ago.

I thank you for reading my story and I really am sorry if you were expecting this to be a new chapter. I will probably rewrite these sometimes in future, but that is not certain yet. I thank you for sticking with me and my never holding deadlines.

Thank you, and I hope you will still read my new stories, too. Hopefully they should be better. :)

Jeraina.


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